Job 33

Elihu speaks to Job

¹But now, Job, please listen to what I say; \q pay attention to all my words. ²Look, I have opened my mouth; \q my tongue is forming words in my mouth. ³My words come from an upright heart, \q and my lips speak what I know sincerely. ⁴The Spirit of God has made me; \q the breath of the Almighty gives me life.^{a 5}Answer me if you can; \q prepare your case before me \q and take your stand. ⁶Look, before God I am just as you are; \q I too was shaped from clay.^{b 7}So no fear of me need terrify you, \q and my pressure will not weigh heavily on you. ⁸You have surely spoken in my hearing, \q and I have heard the sound of your words: ⁹I am pure, without transgression; \q I am clean, \q and there is no guilt in me. ¹⁰Yet God finds reasons to oppose me; \q he counts me as his enemy. ¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks; \q he watches all my paths. ¹²But in this you are not right, I tell you, \q for God is greater than any human. ¹³Why do you complain against him \q that he answers none of a person’s words?^{c 14}For God speaks in one way, and in another, \q though people do not notice it. ¹⁵In a dream, a vision in the night, \q when deep sleep falls on people \q as they slumber on their beds, ¹⁶then he opens people’s ears \q and seals his warning upon them,^{d 17}to turn people away from what they are doing \q and keep them from pride. ¹⁸He spares them from the pit, \q their life from perishing by the sword.^{e 19}People are also corrected by pain on their beds, \q with constant aching in all their bones.^{f 20}They come to loathe food, \q even the food they most enjoy. ²¹Their flesh wastes away until it can hardly be seen, \q and their bones, once hidden, stick out. ²²They draw near to the pit, \q their life to those who bring death.^{g 23}If there is an angel beside them, \q a mediator, one out of a thousand, \q to tell them what is right for them, ²⁴and he is gracious to them and says, \q Spare them from going down to the pit; \q I have found a ransom.^{h 25}Their flesh becomes fresher than a child’s; \q they return to the days of their youthful strength. ²⁶They pray to God, and he accepts them; \q they see his face with shouts of joy, \q and he restores them to righteousness. ²⁷Then they sing before others and say, \q I sinned and twisted what was right, \q but I was not repaid as I deserved.^{i 28}God has redeemed them from going down to the pit, \q and they will live to see the light.^{j 29}Look, God does all these things \q two or three times with a person, ³⁰to bring them back from the pit, \q so that the light of life may shine on them. ³¹Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; \q be quiet, and I will speak. ³²If you have anything to say, answer me; \q speak, for I want to see you proved right. ³³If not, then listen to me; \q be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.