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.
after_note: DELETE
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.
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his duty;
Elihu has described how God speaks to a man in dreams, and then through pain on a sickbed. Here he adds one more thing the sufferer needs: someone to tell him what God is doing. Two questions follow. Who is this rare messenger, and whose "uprightness" does he show?
One writer maps the chapter as farm work. Verse 23 marks the turn from ploughing to sowing.
Job 33:15-22. He shows God using the plough — a dream, a striking providence, bodily pain or sickness — to break up such unploughed ground. And such is the work to this day. Job 33:23-24. The sower comes after the ploughman. The seed is the Gospel. God provides the ransom, and deliverance comes to the sinner.
Each of the three words carries its own weight in the Hebrew.
The word for "messenger" is "angel," and this suggests a supernatural revealer of the mind of God. We find this often in the Old Testament, where the "angel" made known the will of God (see Judges 2:1; Judges 13:3). The "angel of Jehovah" is indeed His representative — so fully that Scripture calls Him Jehovah Himself ("The angel of His presence," Isaiah 63:9). Here we have a hint of the Mediator, and the next word makes it stronger: "an Interpreter," or "Mediator" (see Genesis 42:23; 2 Chronicles 32:21) — one whom God sends as an ambassador to make His mind known. An ordinary messenger will not do; it must be "one of a thousand."
"One among a thousand" is a measure of scarcity, and a crisis is where the shortage shows.
Times of emergency are the opportunity for the one Elihu called a "messenger," an "interpreter." He can show what God has to say in these things. Such people are not common, as we know, but they are of great value, and Elihu called them "one among a thousand," which shows how rare they are. Many can pity the afflicted one, and sometimes condemn him, as Job's three friends did. To give the mind of God is another and a greater thing.
Many read the messenger as pointing beyond Elihu altogether.
Yes, there is help, but only in God, who knows how to send a messenger at the right time, a messenger who is also a mediator, "one among a thousand" (v.23). Such an individual is typical of the Lord Jesus, the "one mediator between God and men" (1 Tim. 2:5).
Commentators differ on how far to press this. One holds that Elihu is the answer to Job's longing for a go-between, and not Christ arriving early.
He had asked for someone with feelings like his own, when he was crushed in spirit under the hand of God. He longed for a man who would step in between God and himself. And God now gives him what he wanted (not yet the man Christ Jesus), a man of God indeed, but with weaknesses like his own.
The last clause is the disputed one. One writer takes it as what is upright for the man — the sense in the ESV phrase "what is right for him."
We fully grant that the Hebrew word can sometimes be translated "duty," but that hardly fits man's sinful state and condition before God. No doubt his state calls for self-judgment; but you could not press this on him as a duty... The sinner needs someone to show him what, for him, is uprightness: bowing before God, and owning his true state, holding nothing back and hiding nothing.
Another reads the pronoun as pointing to God, not the sufferer.
This interpreter is to show man his uprightness. But whose uprightness, or righteousness, does this mean?... Most commentators explain that the interpreter tells the sufferer how to do right before God, and critics even suggest changing the word "uprightness" to "fault." There is a deeper meaning here. The word "his" should carry a capital "H" — not man's righteousness, but God's.
Whichever reading you take, the outcome is the same. The soul comes to an upright position, and God's love meets it there.
The moment the conscience bows under the sin and confesses it, it comes into an upright position. Where evil has been, uprightness of soul shows itself in the awareness of that evil, and in the power to confess it... Get sin judged in the conscience, and then comes the revelation of the unfailing love of God to meet the need.
- Plough, then sow. Dreams, providence and sickness break up the ground. The messenger of verse 23 comes after, bringing God's meaning to the broken man.
- Messenger. The word is "angel" — one who reveals the mind of God. "Interpreter" carries the sense of mediator, an ambassador who makes that mind known.
- One of a thousand. Sympathy and condemnation are common; giving the mind of God is rare, and that rarity is the point of the phrase.
- Mediator. Many see a picture of the one Mediator between God and men. Others hold that Elihu is simply the man Job longed for.
- Uprightness. Read it as the sinner's honest owning of his true state, or as God's righteousness shown to him. Either way, the bowed conscience is where God's love meets the need.
Then he will be gracious unto him, and say, Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom.
Elihu has been listening while Job and his three friends argue. Now he answers them. In two lines he sets out the whole shape of rescue: a man on the road to the pit, a messenger who makes God's mind plain, and a ransom God Himself has found.
The verse leans on the messenger named just before it. One writer asks what that messenger is for, and what the two words describing him mean:
If a man is to profit from God's chastening, he must understand its purpose, and for that he needs someone who can explain it. The word for "messenger" is "angel," and this points to a heavenly messenger who reveals the mind of God. Often in the Old Testament the "angel" made known the will of God (see Judges 2:1; 13:3). The "angel of Jehovah" is His representative — so fully that Scripture calls Him Jehovah Himself ("The angel of His presence," Isa. 63:9). So here we have a hint of the Mediator, and the next word strengthens it: "an Interpreter," or "Mediator" (see Gen. 42:23; 2 Chron. 32:21) — one whom God sends as an ambassador to make His mind known. And an ordinary messenger will not do; it must be "one of a thousand."
"Ransom" — one writer explains the Hebrew word behind it and how God dealt with sin before the cross:
The word translated "ransom" here means a "covering," close to the word translated "atonement" in the Old Testament. Before Christ came, God covered the sin of the repentant sinner from His own holy eye. He was waiting for the time when the sacrifice of Christ, enough for everything, would make full propitiation. So Romans speaks of God passing over "former sins" in "his divine forbearance" (Rom. 3:25). Those past sins were the sins of believers who lived before Christ — Job's among them.
Notice who says "I have found." Job's friends could offer him no ransom. Elihu's confidence rested elsewhere:
The means of such grace is wonderful: "Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom" (v.24). Elihu could not have understood the full weight of his own words. We know the ransom is the Lord Jesus Himself, in His perfect sacrifice for sinners at the cross. Job's friends could not think of suggesting a ransom for Job. But Elihu's heart overflowed with the conviction that there must be such a ransom, since he knew the character of His Creator. The Spirit of God put such words into his mouth. It was not any man who had found the ransom, but God.
One writer presses that respectable people travel the same road as the openly wicked:
Look at that drunkard! He is "going down into the pit." … Look at the man who only claims to believe — respectable and respected, honest and honourable, the most religious and most self-righteous church or chapel member, whether a robed priest or an ordinary member of the congregation! He too is "going down into the pit." The word of God says that everyone is travelling that road, whatever their outward, moral, or religious state, unless they have personally taken for themselves the ransom that God found and God gave.
One writer weighs how plain these words are next to the rest of the Old Testament:
"He is merciful to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom'" — a strikingly vivid way of setting out what God was about to do in due time, and not merely a promise given here in picture form. The language here is plain enough. These are perhaps as clear as any words in the Old Testament, looking ahead to that infinite work which we now know was finished at the cross of Christ.
Another writer links the word "found" to Hebrews 9:12, where older translations read "obtained":
In Elihu's words we find a beautiful expression of the good news of God — "I have found a ransom"; or, in the language of the New Testament, "having obtained (Greek: found) eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12).
Deliverance from the pit is only the start of what the following verses describe:
Now we see the blessed results of this work of the Interpreter in the ransomed man. He can now pray with confidence and rejoice in God's favour, seeing His face with joy. He has found a righteousness — not of his own goodness but of Another — "the righteousness which is of God by faith."
- The road — everyone is travelling to the pit. The moral and religious go the same way as the openly sinful, unless God's ransom delivers them.
- The messenger — "messenger" is the word for angel, and "interpreter" means mediator. No ordinary helper will do. It must be "one of a thousand," a picture of the true Mediator.
- The ransom — the Hebrew word means a covering, close to the word for atonement. God covered the repentant sinner's sin until Christ's sacrifice made full propitiation at the cross.
- The finder — no man found this price. God did, and Elihu spoke better than he knew, since the ransom is Christ Himself.
- The result — the ransomed man prays with confidence and sees God's face with joy. He stands in a righteousness that is not his own but Another's.
His flesh shall be fresher than in childhood; he shall return to the days of his youth.
Elihu has just told Job that God has found a ransom for the dying man, and this verse says what comes next. Writers read it as a picture of what God does with a soul He spares, though they differ over how much Elihu himself could see. (They quote an older translation of this verse and the ones near it: "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth.")
after-note: reason follows
One writer reads Elihu's whole speech as a farming picture. God ploughs hard ground before any seed goes in.
Job 33:15-22. He shows God using the plough — a dream, a striking providence, bodily pain or sickness — to break up that hard ground. And such is the work to this day… Job 33:23-24. The sower comes after the ploughman. The seed is the Gospel. God provides the ransom; He brings deliverance to the sinner. Job 33:25-26. The condition of the believer… Job 33:29-30. Elihu tells Job these are samples of God's way in saving souls.
God dealt with something hidden inside Job before He restored him.
He was a godly man; there was no one like him. Yet God saw a defect in him… Here God does not deal first with outward sin, but with the inward working of a man's ignorance of himself, and then with its breaking out, through God's dealings, into actual sin. So when Job was brought into God's presence, the thing was found out and came into his conscience. When God reveals His presence, the effect is first submission, then confession. "I have uttered what I did not understand… I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." And God restores him to full blessing… Job was not upright in the full, true sense until he despised himself and said so — that is, until he confessed. Then his flesh became fresher than a child's again.
The word "child" sends one writer to the story of Naaman. He was an army commander, healed of leprosy when he washed in the Jordan as the prophet told him.
So a freshness better than that of youth is given — as Naaman gives us an example. "His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:14). It is a new birth, by the incorruptible seed of the word of God.
Job kept looking back and wishing for his old days. One writer says this new freshness is not a return to that old life.
What freshness of soul this gives! "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall return to the days of his youth." It is no longer, "Oh that I was as in months past." The old "I" is done with. It is no longer I, but Christ in me; no more wretched striving to justify the old me. Ah, no! but my soul filled with freshness in contemplating God's ransom, and God's perfection in justifying me by that ransom.
One writer warns against loading the verse with truth that belongs to a later day, while still finding real repentance in the passage.
We have here nothing at all about the two natures. The Old Testament saint never understood that. Man cannot profit by that truth, or understand it, until he sees Christ by faith — sees the Son and believes in Him. Now we are made to understand it simply and fully… "He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it profited me not" — there you see is just what the repentant soul says. It is not called "repentance" here… but here we have the thing, repentance, although the word is not used. It is very comforting to think that this was what God was doing in those days, and was known to be doing — because the gospel was not preached then.
Job had asked for someone to stand between him and God. One writer sees Elihu taking that role, and looking past his own day for the full answer.
Elihu seems to call himself the interpreter Job asked for. He says that a go-between, an interpreter, would bring the solution Job was looking for… Elihu says that the only complete answer to this will come when the full results of the interpreter's coming have reached us.
- Plough — Dreams, sudden events and pain are God's plough, breaking up hard ground. This verse comes at the harvest end of that work, not the wounding end.
- Ransom — The new freshness rests on the word just spoken over the dying man: God has found a ransom.
- Confession — Restoration comes after submission and confession, not self-defence. Job got his youth back only after he despised himself and said so.
- Child — Flesh like a child's is the language of new birth. Naaman's cleansed skin shows it: a freshness better than the youth that was lost.
- Not yet — The verse is real for the believer now. Its full result still waits on all that the promised interpreter came to do.
He shall pray unto +God, and he will receive him with favour; and he shall see his face with shoutings, and he will render unto man his righteousness.
Elihu has been describing how God brings a man back to Himself. Here he shows what that recovery looks like: prayer, God's welcome, and joy. Two questions follow. Whose righteousness does God restore? And how does a man reach this place at all?
The verse describes a man God has ransomed. One writer sees here the result of that work: a voice restored in prayer, and a righteousness that came from someone else.
Now we see the blessed results of this work of the Interpreter in the ransomed man. He can now pray with confidence, rejoice in God's favour, and see His face with joy. He has found a righteousness — not from his own goodness but from Another — "the righteousness from God that depends on faith." No doubt this includes God recognising faithfulness in a child of God, as in Job's case. But the principle carries us much further.
The last clause raises a question. Older translations read it as "He will render to man His righteousness." One writer hears there a righteousness God gives, and points to what had to happen first before God could give it.
Elihu speaks of God showing man what was righteous. That came to light in the path our Lord walked. But he adds, "He will render to man His righteousness." That could only be as a result of the work upon the cross (Job 33:23-26).
Commentators differ here. Another writer applies the same word to Job himself, and to the change of attitude Job still had to make.
He would never surrender his integrity. He would never let go his righteousness. But, as Elihu puts it, his "righteousness," or his "uprightness" (see Job 33:23, 26) would now mean something different. It would mean bowing under God's hand. It would mean trusting the searching work of His discipline, and learning the lesson God would teach. In short, it would mean looking away from himself to God, and living on that new principle before Him — centred in God and no longer in self.
Prayer here is the overflow of new life. One commentator links the verse to what God said about Saul of Tarsus.
The freshness of that new life will overflow in thankful prayer to God. Take Saul of Tarsus. God's grace woke him and saved him, and he had the distinction of having God say of him, "Behold, he is praying" (Acts 9:11). That is the result of being born again: "then man prays to God, and He accepts him" (v.26). More than that, "he sees His face with a shout of joy" — a wonderful honour given to every believer, because God has rendered to him His righteousness (v.26). We throw away our own righteousness as filthy rags, and the believer's confidence is now in God's righteousness.
Verse 26 is the end of a sequence, not the start of one. Something comes first: a conscience that agrees with God about the sin.
He takes notice of every departure from Him. But the door is always open for "repentance." When a man judges his sin, and sees it in the light in which God sees it, nothing stands in the way of immediate restoration. The moment the conscience bows under the sin and confesses it, it comes into an upright position... So the church of God, or an individual soul, must come into this state of uprightness before God, so that He can restore it; Job 33:23-26. Judge sin in the conscience, and then God reveals His unfailing love to meet the need.
The same order holds today. One writer shows how simple the way back is.
The way to be cleared is so simple. Why should anyone walk with a burdened conscience? Make an upright and honest confession, and we are not only forgiven but cleansed. Elihu says the same of the soul that has come to judge itself: "then man prays to God, and He accepts him; he sees His face with a shout of joy."
- Sin judged. God notices every departure from Him, but the door stays open. When the conscience bows and owns the sin, restoration comes at once.
- Righteousness given. The righteousness here is not the man's own goodness but Another's. Only the work of the cross could secure it.
- Prayer returns. The ransomed man prays with confidence; new life shows itself first in prayer, as it did with Saul of Tarsus.
- Joy restored. He sees God's face with joy. That honour belongs to every believer, because God's righteousness, not ours, is now our confidence.
- Two readings. Commentators differ on "his righteousness." Some take it as God's righteousness given to man. Others take it as the uprightness of a man who stops defending himself and bows under God's hand.
He will sing before men, and say, I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it hath not been requited to me;
Elihu describes a broken man's first honest words. Everything turns on whether he owns the truth about himself, and commentators call that the turn toward deliverance.
Admitting "I sinned" looks like weakness. One writer treats it as the opposite:
"I have sinned" — this is uprightness. A sinner's uprightness consists in owning his condition. God says he is a sinner, and his uprightness is to own it. This is the way God is going to save souls at this time. The truth must be out, and owned, as to what you are. God will not, as it were, electroplate you over and make you look like silver when you are nothing but dross. The very first step in the conversion of a soul is owning his sins before God. Not to your fellow man, not to a priest, but to God. Sin confessed is sin forgiven.
The man admits three things: sin, a twisting of what was right, and a loss. One writer ties the "perverting" to Job's own wrong view of God. He also takes the last clause to mean that the sin was never paid back to the man:
"I had sinned and perverted what was right." Job will soon admit his sin. He had perverted, that is, misunderstood, the righteous character of God. In the same way the sinner can look back to the time when he was "a blasphemer and injurious." But God has not repaid that iniquity to the one who was once guilty. "It was not recompensed to me" — for so should the last clause of verse 27 read.
Commentators differ over the opening line. One keeps the older reading, "He looks upon men," and hears in it a man who knows God is watching him:
The wording of verse 27 may be a little uncertain. But the original King James Version seems the most likely to be correct... A real work in the heart of men must begin with God. The person is moved when he realises that God is watching him. He confesses his own sin and perversion, and admits that he has gained nothing by it. So there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Older translations word the verse as a condition: "if any say, I have sinned." One writer points out what that condition does not ask for:
Mark those words, "If any say, I have sinned." Is this the language of your heart now? Can you cast yourself at the feet of Christ a confessed sinner? You may take that place without any fear of being a hypocrite. In owning what you are, as a sinner, before God, there is no fear of deceiving yourself, much less of deceiving God... It is not, If any have served me, or If any have not sinned. It is, If any have sinned.
Why can God answer such words? Earlier in the chapter He says He has found a ransom. One writer looks at what that word means:
The word translated "ransom" here simply means a "covering," related to the word translated "atonement" in the Old Testament. Before Christ came, God covered the sin of the repentant sinner before His holy eye. He waited for the time when Christ's all-sufficient sacrifice would make full propitiation. This is why Scripture speaks of the passing over of sins done beforehand, through the forbearance of God (Romans 3:25). Those past sins were the sins of believers who lived before Christ — Job's among them.
That ransom was not the sinner's discovery, which is why past failure cannot cancel it:
It is not you who found the ransom; God found it. Satan may tell Him of all your sins. He may point above all to your deep ingratitude and failure since you were a child of God. God's reply is, "I have found a ransom."
The verse is not only for a first conversion. It sets a pattern for how a believer handles his own failures:
Take sides fully with your true Master against the sin which is both His enemy and yours. This means you must not excuse yourself in the least degree for giving way to sin, nor blame it on anything or anyone else, but blame yourself fully for it. Let it be stressed that this is a vitally important matter, for far too many defeat themselves by not honestly taking the full blame for their failures.
- Owned — a sinner's uprightness is to agree with God about himself. God will not plate over dross to make it look like silver.
- Worded — the confession names the sin, the twisting of what was right, and the loss. Writers differ over the last clause: "it profited me not" or "it was not repaid to me."
- Unqualified — the condition is not "if any have served me" but "if any say, I have sinned," so no one can be too guilty to use it.
- Ransomed — God can answer such words because He Himself found the covering. It pointed on to the sacrifice of Christ.
- Sung — the forgiven man does not stay silent. He has a new song, and many will hear it and turn to the Lord.
He hath delivered my soul from going into the pit, and my life shall see the light.
Elihu has been describing how God turns a man back from destruction. Here the rescued man speaks for himself. He names three things: his soul redeemed, the pit escaped, and a life that now looks on light. What is that pit, and on what ground does God lift a man out of it?
The word translated "pit" comes from the world of hunting:
shachath, "a pit, a pitfall to entrap animals," place of doom and corruption. Job 33:18, 24, 28, 30
One writer finds two pits here: one a man falls into now, one waiting beyond death:
In these remarkable words Elihu was certainly acting as the interpreter with Job. He showed the good purpose of God in His dealings, which seem so much against men. God aims to deliver them from the "pit" of self-esteem and self-satisfaction in this life, and from the "pit" of judgment and condemnation in the life to come.
The rescue follows a confession. One writer explains why God counts that confession as the sinner's uprightness:
"I have sinned:" this is uprightness. A sinner's uprightness consists in owning his condition. God says he is a sinner, and his uprightness is to own it. This is the way God is going to save souls at this time. The truth must be out, and owned, as to what you are. God will not, so to speak, electroplate you over and make you look like silver, when you are nothing but dross.
God answers that confession at once. His answer rests on something He has already found:
A real work in the heart of men must begin with God. The individual is moved when he realises that God is watching him. He confesses his own sin and perversion, and admits that he has gained nothing by it. So there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. There is an immediate answer from God, "He will deliver his soul from going into the Pit, and his life shall see the light" (v.28). This is certainly because of the ransom that God has found. In fact it is the ransom that God has provided — the sacrifice of His own beloved Son.
Another writer links the ransom Elihu speaks of with a phrase from Hebrews:
In Elihu's words we find a beautiful expression of the gospel of God: "Then He is gracious to him, and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom." The New Testament says the same thing in its own language — "having obtained (Greek, found) eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12).
What is the light the verse promises? One writer ties it to what a person can know today:
Then comes the precious word: "He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit; and his life shall see the light." That means the knowledge of a present and full salvation. If you are looking only to Christ, and resting only on Christ, this is what His death has secured for you: you should know the forgiveness of your sins.
Older versions read "his soul" here, but in this wording the man speaks for himself — "my soul," "my life." One writer says he now sings his own story to others:
Now he can speak to God in prayer and look on His face with joy. In the same way, the ransomed soul can speak to other people. "He looks upon men" should rather read, "He sings to men." It is part of the new song he has learned, and many will hear it and be turned to the Lord… But this sin has not been repaid to the once guilty man.
One writer carries that song into heaven:
Not one person in heaven will sing, "I have never sinned, so I got here by myself." The song up there tells of our hopeless ruin — and of the grace of God.
- Pit — the word means a trap dug to catch animals, and a place of doom. Writers apply it to self-satisfaction now and to judgment later.
- Confession — "I have sinned" is the sinner's only uprightness. God will not plate over dross to make it look like silver.
- Ransom — God's answer is immediate. Its ground lies outside the man: a ransom God found, which Hebrews 9:12 calls "eternal redemption."
- Light — the rescue is more than escape from the pit. It is a salvation known now, with sins forgiven.
- Song — the rescued man then sings to others about his ruin and God's grace. No one in heaven sings of arriving sinless.
Lo, all these [things] worketh God twice, thrice, with man,
Elihu has just described how God speaks to a man — in dreams, in pain on a sick bed, through a messenger who announces a ransom. Now he gathers it all into one sentence: God does this again and again, and the verse asks why He should need to, and what He is aiming at.
Verse 29 closes Elihu's argument. One outline of the chapter follows the whole movement — ploughing, then sowing, then rescue — and treats these verses as his summing up:
Job 33:15-22. He shows God using the plough — of a dream, of a striking providence, of bodily pain or sickness — to break up that hard, unbroken ground. And that is still the work today. Job 33:23-24. The sower comes after the ploughman. The seed is the Gospel. God provides the ransom, and deliverance comes to the sinner… Job 33:29-30. Elihu tells Job these are samples of God's way in saving souls.
God repeats Himself, and the reason lies in us:
Nor does God speak only once to a man, but "twice, in fact three times," for we are poor listeners, and God is concerned deeply that souls should be brought back from the Pit — delivered from the negative horror of being without God, and instead given the positive blessing of being "enlightened with the light of life."
One translation keeps the plain numbers and renders "pit" as corruption:
Look! God does all this twice, three times, with man, to bring back his soul from corruption, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
The picture behind the word is a trap dug in the ground:
shachath, "a pit, a pitfall to entrap animals," place of doom and corruption. Job 33:18, 24, 28, 30.
God's love and His government of us work together. His hand can feel like the collapse of everything we wanted:
We are the objects of His deep, tender, and unchanging love; but we are also the subjects of His wise moral government. His dealings with us are varied. They are sometimes preventive; sometimes corrective; always instructive. We may be set on some course of our own that would end in moral ruin. He steps in and turns us back from it. He smashes our castles in the air, scatters our golden dreams, and breaks into many a favourite plan we had set our hearts on — a plan that would have destroyed us. "Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living."
(Mackintosh quotes an older translation, which reads "oftentimes" where the ESV has "twice, three times.")
Elihu paints a picture of God's ways rather than teaching a doctrine about them:
This is not a doctrine of how grace wakes sinners from the sleep of death. It is a lifelike sketch of His detailed ways. He uses sickness and sorrow, and dreams or visions. Above all, He uses people who come with the light of God to deal with a man's conscience. All this comes out vividly, and so does the effect it produces — "to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." It speaks to the point so powerfully that we know how often preachers still make it a favourite theme when they bring the gospel to those who are not converted.
The way God meets human need has never changed:
Elihu said this before God gave the law through Moses, yet even then he assures Job that God worked these things often with man. Therefore the gospel of God's grace has always been the way God meets man's need. The simplicity of this is beautiful, and Job could have no objection to it.
- He speaks. God addresses man — by dream, by providence, by pain, by a messenger who brings the light of God.
- We miss it. He speaks twice, three times, because we are poor listeners.
- He aims. His dealings stop us, correct us, and always teach us — often by breaking the plans we had set our hearts on.
- He rescues. The goal comes twice over: back from the pit — a trap of doom and corruption — and into the light of life.
- He always has. Elihu spoke before the law, yet preachers still use his sketch of God's way with a soul today.