“Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual 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 plough and the seed
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:
The Bible TreasuryJob 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.")
Why a bed
The setting is part of the message. Illness takes away the activity that fills a person's day and crowds God out.
Leslie M. GrantAnother 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 body reached, not just the mind
The previous verses describe dreams and warnings. Here God's dealing becomes physical. That shift lands on the man Elihu is addressing.
William Kelly"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.
Not proof of hidden wickedness
Job's three friends had already read his suffering as evidence against him. Elihu's account of pain breaks with theirs at the root.
Samuel RidoutAs 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.
Not always for faults committed
God disciplines Job here, but not for something he has done. One writer sets this chastening beside a different kind later in the book.
J. N. DarbyChastenings 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).
Sickness among God's own people
The same principle applies to believers. God can use sickness to bring hidden faults into the light.
J. N. DarbyHe 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.
Where the pain is aimed
The pain is not the end of the story. Elihu points past it to what God is after.
C. StanleyElihu 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."
Summary
- 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.