Job 33:1-33 - Elihu Rebukes Job

¹ "But now, please hear my speeches, Job, and hear all my words. ² Please look, I open my mouth; my tongue in my mouth speaks. ³ My words [declare] my heart's uprightness, and my lips sincerely speak {what my lips know}. ⁴ The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of Shaddai gives life to me. ⁵ "If you are able, answer me. Present [your argument] {before me}; take your stand. ⁶ Look, before God {I am like you}; I myself was also formed from clay. ⁷ Look, dread of me should not terrify you, and my hand will not be heavy upon you.

⁸ "Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard [the] sound of [your] words: ⁹ 'I [am] clean, without transgression; I [am] pure, and [there is] no guilt in me. ¹⁰ Look, he finds fault against me; he reckons me as his enemy; ¹¹ he puts my feet in the block; he watches all my paths.'

¹² "Look, [in] this you are not right--I will answer you: Indeed, God is greater than a human being. ¹³ Why do you contend against him, that he will not answer all a person's words? ¹⁴ Indeed, God speaks in one [way], even in two, [yet] [someone] does not perceive it. ¹⁵ "In a dream, a vision of [the] night, when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on [their] bed, ¹⁶ then he opens [the] ear of men, and {he frightens them with a warning} ¹⁷ to turn human beings aside [from their] deeds, and he keeps man from pride. ¹⁸ He spares his life from [the] pit and his life from passing over the river [of death]. ¹⁹ "And he is reproved with pain on his bed, even [with] the strife of his bones continually, ²⁰ {so that} his life loathes bread, and his inner self [loathes] {appetizing food}. ²¹ His flesh is wasted away from sight, and his bones, [which] are invisible, are bared. ²² And {he} draws near to the pit and his life to the killers. ²³ "If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand, to declare to a human being his uprightness ²⁴ {so that} he is gracious [to] him, and he says, 'Deliver him from descending into [the] pit; I have found a ransom.' ²⁵ His flesh is renewed with [his] youth; he returns to [the] days of his youthful strength. ²⁶ He prays to God, then he accepts him, and he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he repays to the human being his righteousness. ²⁷ "He will sing to men, and he will say, 'I have sinned and have perverted [what is] right, and it was not paid back to me. ²⁸ He redeemed my life from going down into the pit, so {I will enjoy the light}.' ²⁹ Look, God does all these [things] twice, three times with a person ³⁰ to bring his life back from [the] pit {so that he may enjoy the light of life}. ³¹ "Listen attentively, Job; listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. ³² If {you have anything to say}, {answer me}; speak, for I desire {to justify you}. ³³ If not, you listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom."