He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and with constant strife in his bones;
Elihu answers Job with a claim the three friends never made. Suffering can be God's way of speaking, not only His way of punishing. The man he speaks to is flat on his back, worn down by constant pain in his bones. Will he listen?
The verse sits inside a sequence. Elihu has already named the problem: man is dull toward God. One summary maps the whole chapter as farming work:
Job 33:14. He states man's natural dullness and lack of feeling toward God. Job 33:15-22. He shows God using the plough — a dream, a striking providence, physical pain or sickness — to break up such hard, unworked ground. And this is still His work today. Job 33:23-24. The sower comes after the ploughman. The seed is the gospel. God provides a ransom and brings deliverance to the sinner.
(The writers quoted here use older English Bibles. Where the ESV says "rebuked with pain," they read "chastened with pain.")
The setting is part of the message. Illness takes away the activity that fills a person's day and crowds God out.
Another way God speaks is by inflicting "strong pain." It often comes in bed. There a man cannot occupy himself with the many things that keep him from listening to God (v. 19). Sickness and suffering have often driven people to the Lord.
The previous verses describe dreams and warnings. Here God's dealing becomes physical. That shift lands on the man Elihu is addressing.
"He is chastened also with pain on his bed." It is not only these dealings with the soul, but also with the body. There he touches the very case of Job.
Job's three friends had already read his suffering as evidence against him. Elihu's account of pain breaks with theirs at the root.
As we have admitted, there is a great measure of truth in what the friends have said. But it has been one-sided truth, distorted and spoiled by a wrong principle: that all suffering is for wickedness. That principle makes every affliction proof that the sufferer is simply a sinner found out.
God disciplines Job here, but not for something he has done. One writer sets this chastening beside a different kind later in the book.
Chastenings are not always for actual faults. In Job it is said (chap. 33:18-19), "He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened also with pain on his bed, and all his bones with strong pain." Verse 17 shows that this is to hide pride from man. Then in chapter 36 the chastening is for positive faults (v. 9).
The same principle applies to believers. God can use sickness to bring hidden faults into the light.
He chastises them by sickness; and it is important to keep truth in the inner man. Men hide their faults; they want to walk as if all were going well; but God judges His people. He tries the heart and the mind. They are held in bonds of affliction. God shows them their faults, or their unbroken self-will. Man "is chastened also with pain on his bed, and all his bones with strong pain," Job 33:19.
The pain is not the end of the story. Elihu points past it to what God is after.
Elihu shows that God's purpose is Job's full deliverance. This is His purpose too when He permits all the buffeting and conflict the believer passes through. Yes, he comes to the last sinking point. Then: "If there is a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man his uprightness, then He is gracious to him. He says, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom."
- Plough — pain on a bed is God breaking up hard, unworked ground in a man who did not notice His quieter voice.
- Bed — the place matters: illness takes away the activity a person uses to avoid listening.
- Body — God moves from dreams to bones, and touches Job's own case.
- Pride — the stated aim is to hide pride from man. So this chastening is not a verdict on past sins. Elihu breaks with the friends' rule that suffering always exposes a sinner.
- Ransom — the ploughing is for a sowing. God brings the sufferer low, then sends a messenger to announce a ransom.
And his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty food;
Elihu has been describing how God speaks to a man who will not listen: first in dreams at night, then through the body. Verse 20 shows how far that second voice goes: a sick man can no longer face even bread.
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One writer sets this verse beside Job's own earlier words, and finds that Elihu's picture fits the man listening to him:
But God has another way of speaking to men. If they do not listen to His word, He may send them His rod. In enlarging on this, Elihu practically describes the case of Job. Severe chastening pains come on him, and his bones seem to wither in deadly struggle... He is brought so low that he loathes even the food that would keep him alive. "The food I refused to touch has become my food of sorrow." "My soul is weary of my life."
The place matters too. On a bed a man runs out of ways to keep busy and avoid God:
God has another way of speaking: He sends "strong pain." It often comes in a man's bed, where he cannot keep himself busy with the many things that keep him from listening to God (v.19). Sickness and suffering have often driven people to the Lord. A man finds himself unable even to eat (v.20). Then he loses weight and becomes little more than "skin and bones." An early death stares him in the face.
The verse names two foods, not one. Here is how one translator renders verses 19-21:
He is also chastised with pains on his bed, and the strife of his bones is lasting. And his life loathes bread, and his soul the food it desires. His flesh wastes out of sight, and his bones that were not seen stand out.
The man turns from plain bread and from choice food alike. What kept him alive and what he enjoyed lose their worth together.
This is not God grinding a man down for no reason. The same writer reads God's dealing here as mercy at work on a will that has never been bent:
It is exactly what marks out divine mercy in appealing to the unconverted man. He is carried away by his own will. But God knows how to bend or break it. "He keeps back his soul from the pit" (such is the merciful object of God's intervention), "and his life from perishing by the sword."
One writer applies this in two directions at once — to the person who has never turned to God, and to the believer as well:
God may also speak through pain and sickness. Verses 19-22 describe it in vivid detail. He may keep speaking until the sufferer comes face to face with death itself... How often has a blow like this led a careless sinner to turn to God and awakened him for his eternal salvation. How often too has a believer had to look back to a time of severe sickness as an occasion of much spiritual blessing.
The starved body of verse 20 is not the last word. Two verses later the man is at the edge of the grave. There a messenger comes to him:
God uses these outward means of dealing with a man. He works by His word, and as a rule also by a messenger He sends — an interpreter, as we are told, one among a thousand. "Then He is gracious to him, and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom." That is a strikingly vivid way of presenting what God was about to do in due time... Here the language is plain — perhaps as clear as any words in the Old Testament. It looks forward to that infinite work which we now know to be finished in the cross of Christ.
- Voice. When the night-time word goes unheard, God speaks through pain — the rod after the word.
- Bed. Illness takes away the distractions a man uses to avoid listening. First appetite goes, then flesh, then life itself.
- Will. The aim is not ruin. God bends or breaks the self-will that is carrying the man toward the pit.
- Reach. The same dealing wakes a careless sinner, and brings a believer much spiritual blessing.
- Ransom. The wasting ends at a messenger and a word — "I have found a ransom" — which commentators read as pointing to the cross.
His flesh is consumed away from view, and his bones that were not seen stick out;
Elihu is describing a second way God speaks to a man: not by dreams at night, but by pain in the body. Here the picture reaches its worst point, and the question is whether such a collapse is God's anger or God's voice.
Elihu is not describing random bad luck. He is listing the methods God uses when His first appeal goes unheard. This verse belongs to the second method: the sickbed, where a man cannot distract himself.
Another way God speaks is by inflicting "strong pain." It often comes in one's bed, where a man cannot occupy himself with the many devices that keep him from listening to God (v.19). Sickness and suffering have often driven people to the Lord. One finds himself unable even to eat (v.20). Then he loses weight and becomes little more than "skin and bones." An early death stares him in the face (vv.21-22).
Every detail Elihu lists, Job had already said about himself in earlier chapters. Elihu is holding up a mirror, not inventing a case.
Sore chastening pains come upon him, and his bones seem to wither in the struggle for life. "The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest" (Job 30:17). He is brought so low that he hates even the food which would sustain his life... His flesh is wasted away, and his bones look and stare upon him. "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh" (Job 19:20).
The first method touched the ear during sleep. This one reaches the flesh and bones. It can fall on a believing man too.
"He is chastened also with pain upon his bed." It is not only these dealings with the soul, but also with the body. There he touches the very case of Job... "His flesh is consumed away" — how true it was of poor Job... He is a fallen man. He may be a believing man. But still he is a man, as we can say, with the flesh in him. And that flesh may be working strongly, as it did in Job as well as the others.
(Where older translations read "his flesh is consumed away," the ESV says his flesh is "wasted away.")
Elihu lays out how God works and leaves Job to draw the line himself.
Elihu does not say in so many words that Job has refused to listen to God's warnings. He does not say he is describing Job's case exactly. He speaks of God's method of dealing with men. Has it no voice for Job? Can he not at least see that God is speaking in the affliction and that He has something to say?
The wasted body is not God's aim. Mercy is at work behind it.
It is exactly what characterizes divine mercy in appealing to the unconverted man. He is carried away by his own will. But God knows how to bend or break it. "He keeps back his soul from the pit" (such is the merciful object of God's intervention), "and his life from perishing by the sword." Here is more than a dream of the night or a passing vision. Here are corrective ways.
What Elihu described still happens. Writers point to it as an experience many have lived through, both before and after conversion.
God may speak through pain and sickness, described so vividly in verses 19-22, until the sufferer comes face to face with death itself... How often has a careless sinner, when struck this way, been led to turn to God and awakened for his eternal salvation. How often too has a saint had to look back to a time of severe sickness as an occasion of much spiritual blessing.
- Voice, not verdict. The wasted flesh is God speaking a second time, after the dream in the night went unheard.
- Bed, not battlefield. Pain pins a man where he cannot run to his usual distractions, so the message finally lands.
- Mirror, not charge. Elihu quotes Job's own symptoms back to him and asks only whether he can hear God in them.
- Body, not just soul. The stroke reaches the flesh, and it can fall on a believing man in whom the flesh is still working strongly.
- Mercy, not destruction. God's declared aim is to keep the soul back from the pit. That is why a sinner's sickbed has so often become the place of his salvation.
And his soul draweth near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers.
Elihu describes a man wasted by illness until nothing stands between him and the grave — and the question the whole passage turns on is whether anyone can reach him there. One commentator shows that almost every line of this description can be matched from Job's own earlier speeches.
If they do not listen to His word, He may send them His rod. As he expands on this, Elihu is in effect describing the case of Job. Painful chastening comes upon him, and his bones seem to wither in deadly struggle. "The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest" (Job 30:17). He is brought so low that he loathes even the food that would keep him alive... His flesh is wasted away, and his bones look and stare at him. "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh" (Job 19:20). He is at the last of life, drawing near to the grave, or the more dreadful "pit of destruction." "I know that You will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living" (Job 30:23).
Elihu never says outright that this is Job. He leaves the man to recognise himself.
Elihu does not say in so many words that Job has refused to listen to God's warnings, nor does he say he is describing his case exactly. He speaks of God's method of dealing with men. Has it no voice for Job? Can he not at least see that God is speaking in the affliction, and that He has something to say?
The verses before this one list the ways God gets a hearing: a dream, a vision, then the sickbed.
And again, God may speak through pain and sickness. Verses 19-22 describe it vividly. God speaks until the sufferer comes face to face with death itself. How often has a careless sinner, when struck down like this, been led to turn to God and awakened for his eternal salvation. How often too has a believer had to look back to a time of severe sickness as an occasion of much spiritual blessing.
The wasting away is not God finishing a man off. Elihu had already named the purpose behind it, two verses earlier.
The man is carried away by his own will. But God knows how to bend or break it. "He keeps back his soul from the pit" — this is the merciful purpose of God's intervention — "and his life from perishing by the sword." Here is more than a dream of the night or a passing vision. Here are corrective ways, as well as glimpses of God's light, or of His judgment, which the man was despising.
The picture ends at a wall. What follows is a question.
One finds himself unable even to eat (v.20). Then he loses weight and becomes little more than "skin and bones," with an early death staring him in the face (vv.21-22). "His soul draws near the pit." Is there any help?
The next verse answers with a person: a messenger, an interpreter. Both words carry weight.
The word for "messenger" is "angel," and this suggests a supernatural revealer of the mind of God... Here we have a suggestion of the Mediator. The next word makes this stronger: "an Interpreter," or "Mediator" — one sent as an ambassador to make known the mind of God. No ordinary messenger will do; it must be "one of a thousand."
Job already had three men at his bedside. None of them could do this work.
There may be many who can sympathise and sometimes condemn the afflicted one, as Job's three friends did. To give the mind of God is another and a greater thing.
The messenger does not bring advice. He brings God's own word spoken over a dying man.
"Then He is gracious to him, and says, Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom." This is a vivid way of presenting what God was about to do in due time... Here we have plain enough language — perhaps as clear as any words in the Old Testament, anticipating that infinite work which we now know to be finished in the cross of Christ.
The messenger's task is "to declare to man what is right for him." One writer explains what is right for a sinner in this position.
What the sinner needs to be shown is what uprightness means for him: bowing before God, and owning his true state without holding back or hiding anything. This would be genuine uprightness, and it would at once draw out the response from the heart of God.
- Voice — when dreams and warnings go unheeded, God speaks through sickness on the bed. The wasting body is a message, not only a misfortune.
- Edge — the illness carries the man to the brink of the pit. There the description stops and asks: is there any help?
- Purpose — God's aim is to keep the soul back from the pit. The rod corrects, and its object is mercy.
- Messenger — help comes through an interpreter, one among a thousand, who gives the mind of God, not sympathy or blame.
- Ransom — the answer at the brink is God's own word: "I have found a ransom." Commentators read it as pointing ahead to the work finished at the cross.