Job 33:21

_HIS FLESH IS CONSUMED AWAY, THAT IT CANNOT BE SEEN; AND HIS BONES THAT WERE NOT SEEN STICK OUT._ His flesh, once prominent, 'can no more be seen.' His bones, once not seen, now appear prominent. STICK OUT - literally, are bare х_ SHUPUW_ (H8205)]. The Hebrew margin (Qeri') reading. The text (Kethibh) reads it a noun (are become), 'bareness' х_ SHªPIY_ (H8205)]. The Qeri' was no doubt an explanatory reading of transcribers....

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 33:21. _HIS FLESH IS CONSUMED AWAY_] As in atrophy, marasmus, and consumptive complaints in general....

HIS FLESH IS CONSUMED AWAY, THAT IT CANNOT BE SEEN - He wastes away. His flesh, once vigorous, beautiful, and fair, now disappears. This is not a mere description of the nature of his sickness, but it is a description of the disciplinary arrangements of God. It is an important part of his affliction, as a part of the discipline, that his flesh vanishes, and that his appearance is so changed that he becomes repulsive to the view. AND HIS BONES THAT WERE NOT SEEN, STICK OUT - His bones were before invisible. They were carefully concealed by the rounded muscle, and by the fat which filled up the interstices, so that they were not offensive to the view. But now the protuberances of his bones can be seen, for God has reduced him to the condition of a skeleton. This is one of the common effects of disease, and this shows the strength of the discipline which God contemplates. The parts of the h...

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

HIS FLESH IS CONSUMED AWAY, THAT IT CANNOT BE SEEN,.... All being gone, none left to be seen, nothing but skin and bones; and this partly through the vehemence of strong pain, and partly through the nausea of food; not being able to take anything for nourishment and the support of the fluids, and so quite emaciated: AND HIS BONES [THAT] WERE NOT SEEN STICK OUT: which before were covered with flesh and fat, so that they could not be seen; but now the flesh and fat being wasted, they seem as if they rose up in an eminence, and stood out to be beheld; this was also Job's case, being reduced to a mere skeleton, Job 19:20. Elihu, in this description of an afflicted man, seems to have Job chiefly in view, and by this would intimate to him that God had been, and was speaking to him by those afflictions, which he would do well to advert unto....

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