Job 33:19

_HE IS CHASTENED ALSO WITH PAIN UPON HIS BED, AND THE MULTITUDE OF HIS BONES WITH STRONG PAIN:_ When man does not heed warnings of the night, he is chastened, etc. The new thought suggested by Elihu is that affliction is disciplinary (Job 36:10): for the good of the godly. MULTITUDE - so the Hebrew margin (Qeri') х_ ROWB_ (H7379)]. Better, with the text (Kethibh), 'And with the perpetual (strong) contest х_ RIYB_ (H7378)] of his bones;' the never-resting fever in his bones (Psalms 38:3, "Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin"). (Umbreit.)...

19-28 Job complained of his diseases, and judged by them that God was angry with him; his friends did so too: but Elihu shows that God often afflicts the body for good to the soul. This thought will be of great use for our getting good from sickness, in and by which God speaks to men. Pain is the fruit of sin; yet, by the grace of God, the pain of the body is often made a means of good to the soul. When afflictions have done their work, they shall be removed. A ransom or propitiation is found. Jesus Christ is the Messenger and the Ransom, so Elihu calls him, as Job had called him his Redeemer, for he is both the Purchaser and the Price, the Priest and the sacrifice. So high was the value of souls, that nothing less would redeem them; and so great the hurt done by sin, that nothing less would atone for it, than the blood of the Son of God, who gave his life a ransom for many. A blessed c...

Verse Job 33:19. _HE IS CHASTENED ALSO WITH PAIN UPON HIS BED, C._] IV. - AFFLICTIONS are a _fourth_ means which God makes use of to awaken and convert sinners. In the hand of God these were the cause of the salvation of _David_, as himself testifies: _Before I_ _was afflicted, I went astray_, Psalms 119:67; Psalms 119:71; Psalms 119:75. _THE MULTITUDE OF HIS BONES_] By such diseases, especially those of a _rheumatic_ kind, when to the patient's apprehension _every bone_ is _diseased, broken_, or _out of joint_. Some render the passage,

HE IS CHASTENED ALSO WITH PAIN - As another means of checking and restraining him from the commission of sin. When the warnings of the night fail, and when he is bent on a life of sin, then God lays him on a bed of pain, and he is brought to reflection there. There he has an opportunity to think of his life, and of all the consequences which must follow from a career of iniquity. This involves the main inquiry before the disputants. It was, why people were afflicted. The three friends of Job had said that it was a full proof of wickedness, and that when the professedly pious were afflicted it was demonstrative of insincerity and hypocrisy. Job had called this position in question, and proved that it could not be so, but still was at a loss why it was. Elihu now says, that affliction is a part of a disciplinary government; that it is one of the means which God adopts, when warnings are in...

EXPOSITION JOB 33:1 In this chapter Elihu, turning away from the "comforters," proceeds to address Job himself, offering to reason out the matter in dispute with him, in God's stead. After a brief exordium (verses 1-7), he takes exception (1) to Job's self-assertion (verses 8, 9); and (2) to his charges against God (verses 10-13), which (he says) are unjust. He next brings forward his theory of God-inflicted sufferings being, in the main, chastisements proceeding from a loving purpose, intended to purify, to strengthen, to purge out faults, to "save from the pit," to improve, and to enlighten (verses 14-24). He points out in what spirit chastisement should be received (verses 25-30); and concludes with a recommendation to Job to remain silent, and hear him out, while at the same time he expresses a willingn

HE IS CHASTENED ALSO WITH PAIN UPON HIS BED,.... This seems to be another way, in which God, according to his eternal purposes, speaks unto men, as the word "also" intimates; namely, by afflictions, and sometimes painful ones; which have a voice in them, and men of wisdom will hearken to it, Micah 6:9. Pain here signifies not pain of the mind, or a wounded spirit, which is very afflicting, distressing, and intolerable; but pain of the body, as the next clause shows; and this endured on the bed, it being so great as to confine a man to his bed, or is what he felt there, where he might hope for ease and rest; see Job 7:13; AND THE MULTITUDE OF HIS BONES WITH STRONG [PAIN]; not with a slight one, but a very strong one, such as those felt who gnawed their tongues for pain,...

This is a speech of young Elihu, who had sat quietly listening to the taunting words of the three «candid friends» of Job, and to the somewhat exasperated replies of the patriarch. At last, the young man breaks the silence, and with some dignity, and quite sufficient of self-content, he thus addresses himself to Job: Job 33:1. _Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words._ «I am but a young man, but I speak because I cannot be quiet. An impulse moves me; I am as a vessel wanting vent. I desire to speak impartially; therefore, hear me, but hear all that I have to say; do not listen merely here and there to a part of my speech, but hearken to all my words.» Sometimes, it is very necessary to beg our hearers not to run away with only one sentence, or even with one sentiment. «Hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words,» for there is a proportion

CHAPTER 33:8-33 _ 1. Elihu rebukes Job (Job 33:8)_ 2. How God deals with man (Job 33:14) 3. How God in grace recovers (Job 33:23) 4. Mark well, Job, hearken unto me (Job 33:31) Job 33:8. Elihu treats Job in a dignified, yet firm manner. He speaks as one who is sure of the whole matter. He has heard Job's speeches; he knows the mistake Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar made, in treating Job as a suspicious character, a hypocrite and a godless man. No such wrong accusations are made by Elihu. He knows where Job's trouble lies and already spoke of

There is a second way, when a man is brought near to death, and the destroying angels wait to take his life. Then an angel of mercy instructs man in the meaning of his suffering, intercedes for him, and provides a ransom from the destroyer, so that he is restored to health, and avows before men his own sin and God's mercy. In these and other ways God savingly deals with men. In Job 33:21 read his flesh is consumed by wasting (Duhm), instead of consumed that it cannot be seen. The developed angelology of the above passage is very notable. Duhm says that it makes it probable that the Elihu speeches are very late. The idea of spirits hostile to or protective of the soul can hardly have originated without foreign influence, though we can hardly determine whether we have before us Persian or Egyptian or other ideas. Compare the angels in Daniel and Tobit. What the ransom mentioned in...

When Elihu gives the general answer to Job's charges against God that "God is greater than man" he means that the moral loftiness of God's nature made it impossible that He should act in the arbitrary, hostile manner charged against Him by Job (comp. ch. Job 36:5). It was but another form of the same charge of arbitrary hostility to man when Job affirmed that God was deaf to all appeal and refused to speak to man; comp. ch. Job 19:7; Job 30:20, and often. To this general form of the charge Elihu directs his attention and replies that God speaks to man in many ways, though He may not answer when challenged as Job had challenged Him; comp. ch. Job 35:14. He speaks to man in wa