Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 33:4

The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

4. On the language of this verse see ch. Job 32:8. The verse seems connected with Job 33:3. Elihu will utter his sincere conviction, and it is a conviction flowing from that spirit of God given him in his creation; this is a guarantee of its worth as well as its sincerity. The appeal is to common reason (ch. Job 34:2-3), which is a divine illumination (the lamp of the Lord, Pro 20:27), but in his animated zeal for God against the charges of Job Elihu feels that this spirit of God is within him in a powerful degree and gives him a higher wisdom than ordinary.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The Spirit of God hath made me; – see the notes at Job 32:8. There is an evident allusion in this verse to the mode in which man was created, when God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living being; Gen 2:7. But it is not quite clear why Elihu adverts here to the fact that God had made him, or what is the bearing of this fact on what he proposed to say. The most probable supposition is, that he means to state that he is, like Job, a man; that both were formed in the same way – from the same breathing of the Almighty, and from the same clay Job 33:6; and that although he bad undertaken to speak to Job in Gods stead Job 33:6, yet Job had no occasion to fear that he would be overawed and confounded by the Divine Majesty. He had dreaded that, if he should be permitted to bring his case before him (Notes, Job 33:7), but Elihu says that now he would have no such thing to apprehend. Though it would be in fact the same thing as carrying the matter before God – since he came in his name, and meant to state the true principles of his government, yet Job would be also really conducting the cause with a man like himself, and might, unawed, enter with the utmost freedom into the statement of his views.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Job 33:4

The Spirit of God hath made me.

On the general dispensation of the Holy Spirit with respect to the new creation

The Holy Spirit completed the work of creation in all its parts. With respect to the new creation, the work is threefold.

I. His rich and copious influences and operations. The dispensation of the Spirit with respect to the new creation may be considered as follows:–

1. The plentiful effusion of the Spirits influences.

2. The ministry of the Spirit, in the Gospel, is called the ministry of the Spirit by way of eminence.

3. In the Gospel the Spirit is promised to all ranks and degrees of men.

4. Our Lord teaches all His disciples to pray for the Spirit (Luk 11:13).

5. The chief comfort which our Lord left to His disciples at His departure was the Spirit.

II. The work of the Spirit with respect to the human nature of Christ, the head of the new creation.

1. Spirit miraculously formed our Lords human nature, soul and body, in the womb of the Virgin.

2. He filled the human nature of our Lord with holiness; He sanctifies the new nature of the believer.

3. He carried on the progressive work of grace in our Lords soul and body; He carries on the sanctification of the believer unto perfection.

4. He anointed our Lord with all extraordinary powers necessary for the discharge of His offices; He anoints the believer for the discharge of every duty

5. He enabled our Lord to work miracles. He enables the believer to conquer sin and Satan: and are not these great miracles?

6. He directed and comforted our Lord in all His troubles. He directs and comforts believers in all their troubles.

7. He enabled our Lord to offer Himself without spot to God. He enables the believer to meet death in peace and purity.

8. He preserved our Lords dead body that it saw no corruption. He will gather the remains of the believers body, wherever they are.

9. He raised our Lord from the dead. He will raise the believer at the last day.

10. He glorified our Lords human nature. He will glorify the believer, when raised from the tomb.

II. He has borne witness concerning our Lord ever since He raised Him from the dead. He will write the name of the believer in the Book of Life.

III. The work of the Spirit upon the members of Christs mystical body. (J. Kidd, D. D.)

The breath of the Almighty hath given me life.—

The value of life

There are two conflicting theories of the origin of man. One brings him upward from the brute, the other downward from God.

1. Life, in its origin, is infinitely important. The birth of a babe is a mighty event. The Scandinavians have a very impressive allegory of human life. They represent it as a tree, the Igdrasil, or tree of existence, whose roots grow deep down in the soil of mystery; the trunk reaches above the clouds; its branches spread out over the globe. At the foot of it sit the past, present, and future, watering the roots. Its boughs, with their unleafing, spread out through all lands and all time; every leaf of the tree is a biography, every fibre a word, a thought, or a deed; its boughs are the histories of nations; the rustle of it is the noise of human existence onwards from of old; it grows amid the howling of the hurricane–it is the great tree of humanity.

2. Human life is transcendently precious from the services it may render to God in the advancement of His glory. Man was not created as a piece of guess work, flung into existence as a waif. There is purpose in the creation of every human being. What is the purpose of life? Man was created to be happy, to be holy! That is the double aim of life–duty first, then happiness as the consequence. The highest style of manhood and womanhood is to be attained by consecration to the Son of God.

3. Life is infinitely valuable from the eternal consequences flowing from it. This world is a solemn vestibule of eternity.

Practical thoughts–

1. How careful we ought to be to husband life.

2. What a stupendous crime wanton war becomes!

3. How short life is, yet infinite in its reach and retribution! What sort of life are you living? (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 4. The Spirit of God hath made me] Another plain allusion to the account of the creation of man, Ge 2:7, as the words nishmath, the breath or breathing of God, and techaiyeni, hath given me life, prove: “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and he became a living soul.”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I am thy fellow creature, made by Gods Spirit, Gen 1:2, and quickened by that soul which God breathed into man, Gen 2:7, and therefore fit and ready to discourse with thee upon even and equal terms, according to thy desire.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. The Spirit of God hath made measHe did thee: latter clause of Job33:6 (Ge 2:7). Therefore thouneedest not fear me, as thou wouldest God (Job 33:7;Job 9:34). On the other hand,”the breath of the Almighty hath inspired me” (asJob 32:8); not as EnglishVersion, “given me life”; therefore “I amaccording to thy wish (Job 9:32;Job 9:33) in God’s stead” tothee; a “daysman,” umpire, or mediator, between God andthee. So Elihu was designed by the Holy Ghost to be a type of JesusChrist (Job 33:23-26).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The Spirit of God hath made me,…. As a man; so every man is made by God, and not by himself; Father, Son, and Spirit, are his Makers or Creators, as we read of them in the plural number, Ps 149:2; and this is a proof of the deity of the Spirit, who was not only concerned in the creation of all things, garnishing the heavens, and moving upon the face of the waters on the earth; but in the formation of man:

and the breath of the mighty hath given me life; the same with the Spirit of God, the allusion is to the creation of man at first, when God breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul: life natural is from God, he is the God of our life, he gives all the mercies of life, and by him is this life preserved; and the whole is the effect of almighty power: now this is observed by Elihu to Job, to encourage him to attend to him without fear, since he was a man, a creature of God, as he was: it may be understood of his spiritual formation, the Spirit of God remakes men, or makes them new men, new creatures; this is done in regeneration, which is the work of the Holy Spirit; hence regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, are put together; and being a work of almighty power, is proof of the deity of the Spirit of God; it is he that quickens men when dead in trespasses and sins, and makes them alive to God; which appears by their spiritual breathings after divine things, and by the exercise of their spiritual senses, and by their performance of spiritual actions; and now Elihu, being a man regenerated and quickened by the Spirit, might more justly claim the attention of Job, since what he should say was what he had heard, felt, and seen, as good man, one that had an experience of divine and spiritual things.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

4 The Spirit of God hath made me,

And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

5 If thou canst, answer me,

Prepare in my presence, take thy stand!

6 Behold, I am like thyself, of God,

Formed out of clay am I also.

7 Behold, my terror shall not affright thee,

And my pressure shall not be heavy upon thee.

He has both in common with Job: the spirituality as well as the earthliness of man’s nature; but by virtue of the former he does not, indeed, feel himself exalted above Job’s person, but above the present standpoint taken up by Job; and in consideration of this, Job need not fear any unequal contest, nor as before God, Job 9:34; Job 13:21, in order that he may be able to defend himself against Him, make it a stipulation that His majesty may not terrify him. It is man’s twofold origin which Elihu, Job 33:4, Job 33:6, gives utterance to in harmony with Gen 2:7: the mode of man’s origin, which is exalted above that of all other earthly beings that have life; for the life of the animal is only the individualizing of the breath of the Divine Spirit already existing in matter. The spirit of man, on the contrary (for which the language has reserved the name ), is an inspiration directly coming forth from God the personal being, transferred into the bodily frame, and therefore forming a person.

(Note: God took a small piece of His own life – says the tradition among the Karens, a scattered tribe of Eastern India – blew into the nostrils of His son and daughter, and they became living beings, and were really human.)

In the exalted consciousness of having been originated by the Spirit of God, and being endowed with life from the inbreathed breath of the Almighty, Elihu stands invincible before Job: if thou canst, refute me ( with acc. of the person, as Job 33:32); array thyself ( for , according to Ges. 63, rem. 1) before me (here with the additional thought of , as Job 23:4, in a forensic sense with ), place thyself in position, or take thy post ( imper. Hithpa. with the ah less frequent by longer forms, Ew. 228, a).

On the other side, he also, like Job, belongs to God, i.e., is dependent and conditioned. is to be written with Segol (not Ssere); is intended like , Job 12:16; and signifies properly, according to thine utterance, i.e., standard, in accordance with, i.e., like thee, and is used even in the Pentateuch (e.g., Exo 16:21) in this sense pro ratione ; , Job 30:18, we took differently. He, Elihu, is also nipped from the clay, i.e., taken from the earth, as when the potter nips off a piece of his clay (comp. Aram. , a piece, Arab. qurs , a bread-cake, or a dung-cake, vid., supra, p. 449, from qarasa , to pinch off, take off, cogn. qarada , to gnaw off, cut off, p. 512). Thus, therefore, no terribleness in his appearing will disconcert Job, and his pressure will not be a burden upon him. By a comparison of Job 13:21, it might seem that is equivalent to (lxx ), but is everywhere connected only with , never with ; and the . . is explained according to Pro 16:26, where signifies to oppress, drive (Jer. compulit ), and from the dialects differently, for in Syr. ecaf signifies to be anxious about anything ( ecaf li , it causes me anxiety, curae mihi est ), and in Arab. accafa , to saddle, ucaf , Talmud. , a saddle, so that consequently the Targ. translation of by , my burden, and the Syr. by , my pressing forward (Arabic version iqbal i, my touch), are supported, since signifies pressure, heavy weight, load, and burden; according to which it is also translated by Saad. (my constraint), Gecat. (my might). It is therefore not an opponent who is not on an equality with him by nature, with whom Job has to do. If he is not able to answer him, he will have to be considered as beaten.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

4. The Spirit of God hath made me See note on Job 32:8. In the origination of every man is thus repeated, according to the view of Scripture, a work as divine as that of Adam’s creation. (Compare DELITZSCH. Psych., 249.) This passage is cited by Theodoret as a proof-text of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

Hath given me life Giveth me life, quickeneth me. The manifestations of divine power in upholding all things, “cannot be better explained than by calling it a continuous creation.” Leibnitz.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments