Job 33 · The Lantern

Elihu Rebukes Job

But now, hear my words, Job, and give ear to all my speech.

Look, please, I have opened my mouth; my tongue has spoken in my palate.

My sayings are the uprightness of my heart, and my lips speak knowledge clearly.

These words mean, I do not speak so out of envy or jealousy. Even though the three friends said the same things as him, they did not do so in the same spirit or in order to defend God. Indeed also Judas and the eleven disciples expressed the same opinion about the vase of perfume, but not in the same spirit.

My words are from my simple heart, and my lips shall speak a pure sentence. To say that speech is simple, is a praise of great weight. But because the haughty possess it not, they assert the more anxiously that they possess it, in order that they may be heard with less apprehension.

Since Job in what has gone before has accused his friends of afflicting him and confounding him with words, (19:2) Eliud shows this is not true with him saying, "My words are in a simple heart," as if to say: I do not speak to falsely condemn or to ridicule, but to show the truth with a simple heart.

The spirit of God made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

[Elihu] believes that with the aid of a comparison he can make some effective assertions against Job. "If you," he says, "cannot reply to me, a creation of God, be certain that you will be much less able to reply to God, the Maker of everything."

The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Intending to subjoin truth, he first uttered boastful words, and being about to state the sound opinions he held, he first made known how huge was his swelling.

He shows the source of such confidence in clearly explaining the truth saying, "The Spirit of God made me," and therefore, it is no wonder that he moves his creature and perfects his product, and he explains this continuing, "and the breath of the Most High gave me life," for he moved and perfected me for the works of life, and the principal one of these is the understanding of…

If you can, answer me; set yourself out before me; take your stand.

Look, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from clay.

Look, my terror will not dismay you, and my pressure on you will not be heavy.

Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words:

This is what holy Job had said above, "Do you want me to reap the iniquities of my youth?" Therefore, [Elihu] refutes this as a blasphemy, that is, the fact that holy Job had believed that no fault could be found in him; he was blameless in his mature age but was punished severely for the errors committed in his youth.

Thou hast spoken then in mine ears, and I have heard the voice of thy words. And subjoining the very words, he says what he heard.

After he has said these things as an introduction, he strengthens the arguments which he intends to use against Job, and so he says, "Therefore you have spoken in my hearing," as if to say: You cannot excuse yourself by saying that you did not say this, "and I heard the sound of your words," for I listened attentively.

“I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

Look, he finds occasions against me; he counts me as his enemy.

He puts my feet in the stocks; he watches all my paths.”

Look, in this you are not right — I will answer you: God is greater than a mortal.

If you believe that you must also show this to those who are ungrateful, you will nonetheless consent that God is undoubtedly superior to all. Therefore, since he is also the first in justice and wisdom, he cannot appear to have done something that may incur your note of reproof.

This is the thing then in which thou art not justified. I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Blessed Job had indeed truly said, that he had been scourged without any fault. For he said of himself exactly what the Lord had said of him to the devil, Thou hast moved Me against him to afflict him without cause.

Because this second point excludes the first, he then says, "It is in this then in which you are not justified," as if to say: You cannot say you are just because the very fact that you impute injustice to God shows your injustice. Eliud has already proposed those things which he intended to dispute with Job.

Why do you contend against him, that he does not answer any of his words?

For God speaks in one way, and in two, though a person does not perceive it:

in a dream, a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumberings on the bed —

then he uncovers the ear of men, and seals their discipline,

to turn a person aside from his deed, and to cover pride from a man;

That He may withdraw man from the things that he has done, and may deliver him from pride. For what has man done of himself but sin? And it is written, Pride is the beginning of all sin. It is rightly said, then, that when man is withdrawn from what he has done, he is freed from pride.

The words "that he may turn them aside from their deeds" means this: by way of those [dreams and visions] God keeps people from shameful actions. The words "he covers the body of man" [mean] sometimes he brings on righteous diseases and pains as well, in order to preserve him in this manner from the punishment of perdition.

So he says, "to turn a man aside from what he has done." For man is frequently corrected in dreams for sins he has committed. Since the pride is the root of sin because by it one holds the commandments of God in contempt, he then says, "and to free him from pride."

to hold back his soul from the pit, and his life from passing over by the spear.

And he is reproved with pain on his bed, and with unceasing strife in his bones,

so that his life loathes bread, and his soul the food of desire.

These words mean that the soul of the wicked will never rejoice in the sins that it has committed or in the justice that it has never reached.

His bread becomes abominable to him in his lips, and to his soul the food which before it desired. As if he were to say in so many words; A mind under affliction believes that every thing which used easily to satisfy, and give it pleasure, is turned into bitterness.

Third, he places the loss of appetite when he says, "Bread," which is common food, "becomes abominable to him during his life," while he still lived, because of sickness, "and the food of his soul, which he desired before, becomes abominable," which refers to other foods which are desired in different ways by different people.

His flesh wastes away out of sight, and his bones that were not seen stick out.

And his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to those who bring death.

If there is for him a messenger, an interpreter, one of a thousand, to declare to a person what is right for him —

then he is gracious to him and says, “Ransom him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.”

His flesh grows fresher than a boy’s; he returns to the days of his youth.

He entreats God, and he accepts him; and he sees his face with a shout; and he restores his righteousness to a mortal.

He sings before men and says, “I sinned, and I twisted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.

He ransomed my soul from passing over into the pit, and my life will look on the light.”

Look, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,

to bring his soul back from the pit, to be lit with the light of the living.

Give heed, Job; listen to me. Be silent, and I myself will speak.

If there are words, answer me; speak, for I desire to declare you righteous.

If not, you listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.

Job33

Elihu Rebukes Job