His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, 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.
Where the Verse Sits in Elihu's Argument
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.
Leslie M. GrantAnother 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).
A Portrait Job Would Recognise
Every detail Elihu lists, Job had already said about himself in earlier chapters. Elihu is holding up a mirror, not inventing a case.
Samuel RidoutSore 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).
God Deals With the Body, Not Only the Soul
The first method touched the ear during sleep. This one reaches the flesh and bones. It can fall on a believing man too.
William Kelly"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 Describes Without Accusing
Elihu lays out how God works and leaves Job to draw the line himself.
Samuel RidoutElihu 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 Merciful Aim Behind the Wasting
The wasted body is not God's aim. Mercy is at work behind it.
William KellyIt 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.
The Same Voice Still Speaks
What Elihu described still happens. Writers point to it as an experience many have lived through, both before and after conversion.
F. B. HoleGod 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.
Summary
- 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.