Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 33:24
Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
24. then he is gracious ] God is gracious; God, not the angel, is the speaker in the rest of the verse. It is assumed that when the sufferer is shewn what is right ( Job 33:23) he follows it; then God is gracious unto him, and commands that he be delivered from his affliction and saved from death. It is hardly of consequence to enquire what the ransom is which God has found. It may be the sinner’s repentance and return to rectitude; or it may be that the affliction is held sufficient (Isa 40:2; Job 36:18); or possibly the words may mean nothing more than that God is pleased of His goodness to hold the sinner as ransomed and delivered from the consequences of his sin.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then he is gracious unto him – That is, on the supposition that he hears and regards what the messenger of God communicates. If he rightly understands the reasons of the divine administration, and acquiesces in it, and if he calls upon God in a proper manner Job 33:26, he will show him mercy, and spare him. Or it may mean, that God is in fact gracious to him by sending him a messenger who can come and say to him that it is the divine purpose to spare him; that he is satisfied, and will preserve him from death. If such a messenger should come, and so announce the mercy of God, then he would return to the rigoar of his former days, and be fully restored to his former prosperity. Elihu refers probably to some method of communication, by which the will of God was made known to the sufferer, and by which it was told him that it was Gods design not to destroy, but to discipline and save him.
Deliver him – Hebrew, padahu, redeem him. The word used here ( pada) properly means to let loose, to cut loose; and then to buy loose; that is, to redeem, to ransom for a price. Sometimes it is used in the general sense of freeing or delivering, without reference to a price, compare Deu 7:8; Jer 15:21; Psa 34:22; Job 6:23; but usually there is a reference to a price, or to some valuable consideration, either expressed or implied; compare the notes at Isa 43:3. Here the appropriate idea is expressed, for it is said, as a reason for redeeming or rescuing him, I have found a ransom. That is, the ransom is the valuable consideration on account of which he was to be rescued from death.
From going down to the pit – The grave, the world of darkness. Notes, Job 33:18. That is, he would keep him alive, and restore him again to health. It is possible that by the word pit here, there may be a reference to a place of punishment, or to the abodes of the dead as places of gloom and horror especially in the case of the wicked but the more probable interpretation is, that it refers to death alone.
I have found – That is, there is a ransom; or, I have seen a reason why he should not die. The idea is, that God was looking for some reason on account of which it would be proper to release the sufferer, and restore him to the accustomed tokens of his favor and that such a ransom had now appeared. There was now no necessity why those sufferings should be prolonged, and he could consistently restore him to health.
A ransom – Margin, or, an atonement. Hebrew, kopher. On the meaning of this word, see the notes at Isa 43:3. The expression here means that there was something which could be regarded as a valuable consideration, or a reason why the sufferer should not be further afflicted, and why he should be preserved from going down to the grave. What that price, or valuable consideration was, is not specified; and what was the actual idea which Elihu attached to it, it is now impossible with certainty to determine. The connection would rather lead us to suppose that it was something seen in the sufferer himself; some change done in his mind by his trials; some evidence of acquiescence in the government of God, and some manifestation of true repentance, which was the reason why the stroke of punishment should be removed, and why the sufferer should be saved from death. This might be called by Elihu a ransom – using the word in a very large sense.
There can be no doubt that such a fact often occurs. God lays his hand on his erring and wandering children. He brings upon them afflictions which would consign them to the grave, if they were not checked. Those afflictions are effectual in the case. They are the means of true repentance; they call back the wanderer; they lead him to put his trust in God, and to seek his happiness again in him; and this result of his trials is a reason why they should extend no further. The object of the affliction has been accomplished, and the penitence of the sufferer is a sufficient reason for lightening the hand of affliction, and restoring him again to health and prosperity. This is not properly an atonement, or a ransom, in the sense in which the word is now technically used, but the Hebrew word used here would not be inappropriately employed to convey such an idea. Thus, in Exo 32:30, the intercession of Moses is said to be that by which an atonement would be made for the sin of the people.
Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement ( ‘ekapharah, from kaphar), for your sin. Here, it is manifest that the act of Moses in making intercession was to be the public reason, or the ransom, why they were not to be punished. So the boldness, zeal, and fidelity of Phinehas in resisting idolatry, and punishing those who had been guilty of it, are spoken of as the atonement or ransom on account of which the plague was stayed, and the anger of God removed from his people; Num 25:12-13, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace – because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement ( vaykaphar) for the children of Israel. Septuagint, exilasato. In this large sense, the sick mans repentance might be regarded as the covering, ransom, or public reason why he should be restored.
That word literally means that which covers, or overlays any thing; and then an atonement or expiation, as being such a covering. See Gen. 20, 16; Exo 21:30. Cocceius, Calovius, and others suppose that the reference here is to the Messiah, and to the atonement made by him. Schultens supposes that it has the same reference by anticipation – that is, that God had purposed such a ransom, and that in virtue of the promised and pre-figured expiation, he could now show mercy. But it cannot be demonstrated that Elihu had such a reference; and though it was undoubtedly true that God designed to show mercy to people only through that atonement, and that it was, and is, only by this that release is ever given to a sufferer, still, it does not follow that Elihu fully understood this. The general truth that God was merciful, and that the repentance of the sick man would be followed by a release from suffering, was all that can reasonably be supposed to have been understood at that. period of the world. Now, we know the reason, the mode, and the extent of the ransom; and taking the words in their broadest sense, we may go to all sufferers, and say, that they may be redeemed from going down to the dark chambers of the eternal pit, for God has found a ransom. A valuable consideration has been offered, in the blood of the Redeemer, which is an ample reason why they should not be consigned to hell, if they are truly penitent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. Then he is gracious unto him] He exercises mercy towards fallen man, and gives command for his respite and pardon.
Deliver him from going down to the pit] Let him who is thus instructed, penitent, and afflicted, and comes to me, find a pardon; for:-
VI. I have found a ransom.] copher, an atonement. Pay a ransom for him, pedaehu, that he may not go down to the pit-to corruption or destruction, for I have found out an atonement. It is this that gives efficacy to all the preceding means; without which they would be useless, and the salvation of man impossible. I must think that the redemption of a lost world, by Jesus Christ, is not obscurely signified in Job 33:23-24.
While the whole world lay in the wicked one, and were all hastening to the bottomless pit, God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice, and head of the Church, commissions his messengers-apostles and their successors-to show men the righteousness of God, and his displeasure at sin, and at the same time his infinite love, which commands them to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and that they who believe on him shall not perish, shall not go down to the pit of destruction, for he has found out an atonement; and that whoever comes to him, through Christ, shall have everlasting life, in virtue of that atonement or ransom price.
Should it be objected against my interpretation of aleph, that it cannot be translated chief or head, because it is without the vau shurek, alluph, which gives it this signification; I would answer, that this form of the word is not essential to the signification given above, as it occurs in several places without the vau shurek, where it most certainly signifies a chief, a leader, captain, c., e.g., Zec 9:7 Jer 13:21, and Ge 36:30; in the first of which we translate it governor; in the second, captain; and in the third, duke. And although we translate alluph an ox or beeve, (and it most certainly has this meaning in several places,) yet in this signification it is written without the vau shurek in Pr 14:4; Ps 8:7; Isa 30:24; and in De 7:13; De 28:4; De 28:18; De 28:51; which all show that this letter is not absolutely necessary to the above signification.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then; in that case, or upon the sick mans knowledge and practice of his duty.
He; either,
1. The messenger or interpreter last mentioned, who is pitiful unto the sick man, and in companion to him doth all that he can for him, counselling and comforting him, and praying to God for his recovery in the following words,
Deliver him, & c. for the sake of that ransom which thou hast revealed and I have discovered to him. Or rather,
2. God, who is oft in this book designed by this particle he, or him; whose property and prerogative it is to be gracious unto man, and who alone can speak the following words with power and authority.
Is gracious unto him; pardoning his sins, and delivering him from his dangerous disease, and from death and from the hell which attends upon it.
And saith, to the angel or messenger.
Deliver him, to wit, ministerially and declaratively; in which sense the acts of forgiving sins, and reconciling sinners, and saving souls, are ascribed to Gods ministers; as Joh 20:23; 2Co 5:19,20; 1Ti 4:16. Declare to him that I have pardoned and will heal him.
I have found a ransom: although I might justly destroy him, and should do it, if I were severe to mark what is amiss in him; yet I will spare him, for I have found out an expedient and a way of ransoming and redeeming sinners from death, both temporal and eternal, which they by their sins have deserved, which is by the death of my Son, the Redeemer of the world, which shall be in the fulness of time, and with respect to which I will pardon this sick man, and others that shall repent and sue to me for mercy, as he hath done.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Apodosis to Job33:23.
heGod.
Deliverliterally,”redeem”; in it and “ransom” there is referenceto the consideration, on account of which God pardons andrelieves the sufferers; here it is primarily the intercession ofElihu. But the language is too strong for its full meaning to beexhausted by this. The Holy Ghost has suggested language whichreceives its full realization only in the “eternalredemption found” by God in the price paid by Jesus Christ forit; that is, His blood and meritorious intercession (Heb9:12). “Obtained,” literally, “found”;implying the earnest zeal, wisdom, and faithfulness of the finder,and the newness and joyousness of the finding. Jesus Christcould not but have found it, but still His seeking itwas needed [BENGEL], (Lu15:8). God the Father, is the Finder (Ps89:19). Jesus Christ the Redeemer, to whom He saith, Redeem(so Hebrew) him from going, c. (2Co5:19).
ransomused in ageneral sense by Elihu, but meant by the Holy Ghost in its strictsense as applied to Jesus Christ, of a price paid fordeliverance (Ex 21:30), anatonement (that is, means of selling at once, that is,reconciling “two” who are estranged), a covering, asof the ark with pitch, typical of what covers us sinners from wrath(Gen 6:14 Psa 32:1).The pit is primarily here the grave (Isa38:17), but the spiritual pit is mainly shadowed forth (Zec9:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then he is gracious to him,…. To the sick man; either the messenger or the minister that is with him, who pities his case and prays for him; and by some the following words are supposed to be a prayer of his, “deliver me”, c. since one find in the Gospel there is a ransom for such persons. Rather Christ, who is gracious to man, as appears by his assumption of their nature and becoming a ransom for them, and who upon the foot of redemption which he has “found” or obtained, see Heb 9:12 pleads for the present comfort and future happiness of his people, in such language as after expressed, “deliver him”, c. Or rather God the Father is gracious to the sick man for his Son’s sake,
and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit addressing either the disease, so Mr. Broughton renders the word, “spare him (O killing malady) from descending into the pit”, the grave, for the present his disease threatened him with. Or the minister of the word attending the sick man, who is bid to declare to him, as Nathan to David, and Isaiah to Hezekiah, that he should live longer, and not die for the present: or rather the address is to law and justice, to let the redeemed of the Lord go free, and particularly the sick man being one of them; and not thrust him down into the bottomless pit of everlasting ruin and destruction, for the reason following:
I have found a ransom; which is no other than Christ the Son of God; whom Jehovah, in his infinite wisdom, found out and settled upon to be the ransomer of his people; to which he agreed, and in the fulness of time came to give his life a ransom for many, and for whom he has given himself as a ransom price, which has been testified in due time: and this ransom is for all the elect of God, and is of them from sin, Satan, law, hell, and death; and the finding of it is not of man, nor is the scheme of propitiation, peace and reconciliation by Christ, or of atonement and satisfaction s by the sacrifice of Christ, as the word here used signifies, an invention of men; but is the effect of infinite wisdom, and a scheme drawn in the eternal mind, and formed in Christ from everlasting; see 2Co 5:19. Some take these words to be spoken by the Father to the Son, upon his appointment and agreement to be the ransomer and Redeemer, saying, “go, redeem him”, c. for so the words t may be rendered and others think they are the words of the Son the messenger to his Father, the advocate with him for his people, as before observed.
s “propitiationem”, Beza, Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Bolducius, Vatablus; “expiationem”, Tigurine version; “lytrum”, Cocceius; “satisfactionem”, Schmidt. t “redime eum”, Pagninus, Montanus &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(24) Then he is gracious unto himi.e., God is gracious; He accepts the mediation of the mediating angel. These words of Elihus must have fallen on Jobs ear with a grateful and refreshing sound, confirming to him his longing for the daysman (Job. 9:33).
And saithi.e., to the destroying angels of Job. 33:22. It is remarkable that it is God who finds the ransom, as it was by Gods grace that the interpreting angel was forthcoming. It is not mans righteousness that has saved him, but the ransom that God has found, even though God, who judgeth the actions, may have justly recognised what of righteousness there was in man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. I have found The finding alluded to in is, primarily, that which comes from search or effort. The use of the word is similar to that of in Heb 9:12: “Having obtained (found) eternal redemption.” Compare “find grace,” Heb 4:16. A ransom Margin, an atonement, , kopher, that which covers, is generally used with respect to sin in the sense of making expiation. It is the substitutive consideration, whether of money, (Exo 30:12,) blood, or life, by which guilt is regarded as covered up, and in a certain sense concealed from the eye of God. In the ancient economy of grace God was pleased to accept the propitiatory offering, ( ransom,) or, more properly, the motive implied in its presentation, and to look propitiously upon weak and erring man. The great angel here intervenes with his ransom, the nature of which Elihu does not disclose, and saves man from going down to the pit. Elihu again alludes to this ransom under the same term, kopher. when the danger is in like manner indescribably great. Comp. Job 36:18, on which see note. The fact that the great ransom ( kopher) there (Job 36:18) cannot be repentance, is quite decisive against the view of Hengstenberg, that the ransom spoken of here is repentance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 33:24 Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
Ver. 24. Then is he gracious unto him, and saith ] If the sick man, thus counselled and comforted, repent and believe the gospel, delivering himself up to God, and to that his messenger by the will of God, mercy and truth shall be with him, he shall be cured on both sides, as that palsy man was, Mat 9:2 , the Lord shall raise him up, if it may stand with his eternal welfare. But howsoever, if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him, Jas 5:15 . Both the guilt and filth of them shall be taken away, so that he shall be able to look death in the face with everlasting comfort, as being made to him ianua vitae, porta coeli; a postern, to let out temporal, but a street door, to let in eternal, life.
Deliver him from going down to the pit
I have found a ransom
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a Hansom = an Atonement. Hebrew. kopher, a covering by shedding of blood, or the price of expiation, or atonement.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Then: Job 33:18, Job 22:21, Exo 33:19, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7, Psa 86:5, Psa 86:15, Hos 14:2, Hos 14:4, Mic 7:18-20, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21
Deliver: Job 36:10, Job 36:11, Psa 22:4, Psa 30:9-12, Psa 40:2, Psa 71:3, Psa 86:13, Isa 38:17-19, Jer 31:20, Zec 9:11
I: Job 33:24, Psa 49:7, Psa 49:8, Mat 20:28, Rom 3:24-26, 1Ti 2:6, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19
a ransom: or, an atonement
Reciprocal: Exo 30:12 – a ransom 1Ch 6:49 – make an atonement Job 19:25 – I know Job 33:28 – will deliver Job 33:30 – To bring Job 36:18 – then Isa 40:31 – renew Hos 13:14 – ransom Jon 2:6 – corruption Mar 5:29 – straightway Rom 8:34 – It is Christ Eph 1:7 – whom
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
33:24 Then he is {o} gracious unto him, and saith, {p} Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
(o) He shows that it is a sure token of God’s mercy toward sinners, when he causes his word to be preached to them.
(p) That is, the minister will by the preaching of the word pronounce to him the forgiveness of his sins.