Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 33:19
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong [pain]:
19. multitude of his Bones with strong pain ] Rather, and with a continual strife In his bones the word “strife” meaning “conflict of pain.” This is the reading of the Heb. text. The A. V. has adopted the Heb. margin; but if this be taken the sense must be: while the multitude of his bones is strong, in his freshness and youth. Besides putting a doubtful meaning on some of the words, this sense is less to the purpose here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
19 28. These verses may describe another instance of God’s dealing with man, or a further discipline of the same person ( Job 33:15-18), the result stated Job 33:18 not having been attained. The passage has four steps:
(1) The affliction, graphically presented, Job 33:19-22.
(2) The intervention of the Divine messenger, who interprets to the sufferer what it becomes him to do; and God’s gracious pardon of him, Job 33:23-24.
(3) The restoration to prosperity and righteousness of him who was afflicted, Job 33:25-26.
(4) His thankfulness, publicly shewn among men, Job 33:27-28.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He is chastened also with pain – As another means of checking and restraining him from the commission of sin. When the warnings of the night fail, and when he is bent on a life of sin, then God lays him on a bed of pain, and he is brought to reflection there. There he has an opportunity to think of his life, and of all the consequences which must follow from a career of iniquity. This involves the main inquiry before the disputants. It was, why people were afflicted. The three friends of Job had said that it was a full proof of wickedness, and that when the professedly pious were afflicted it was demonstrative of insincerity and hypocrisy. Job had called this position in question, and proved that it could not be so, but still was at a loss why it was. Elihu now says, that affliction is a part of a disciplinary government; that it is one of the means which God adopts, when warnings are ineffectual, to restrain people and to bring them to reflection and repentance. This appears to have been a view which was almost entirely new to them.
And the multitude of his bones with strong pain – The bones, as has before been remarked, it was supposed might be the seat of the acutest pain; see the notes at Job 30:17; compare Job 20:11; Job 7:15; Job 30:30. The meaning here is, that the frame was racked with intense suffering in order to admonish men of sin, to save them from plunging into deeper transgression, and to bring them to repentance.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 33:19-30
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.
Sanctified affliction
Two chapters in the hook of human life are hard to understand–the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous. The Book of Job is a luminous commentary on both. Carefully studied, these verses furnish a chain of reason which will make clear to reverent minds the source and meaning of earthly affliction.
I. The Lord Jehovah is a sovereign (verse 13). He giveth not account of any of His matters. It is from this point that the problem of human evil in all its forms must begin to be solved. And if our inquiries should end where they begin, with the absolute sovereignty of God, there would be no just ground of complaint. God has all power and right in His own universe. He is not bound to justify any single act of His to human reason. The first treatment of all affliction, is to give it welcome. It is the uttered will of God. It is to be taken without any reason, not because there is none, but because we have no right to be shown it. But while God is a sovereign, and does His pleasure, it is not His pleasure to afflict men willingly nor hastily, for–
II. He speaks again and again before He strikes (verses 14-18). These verses are a picture of the patience of God in His dealings with men. He will exhaust every form of warning and every tone of voice. When men in their waking hours are dull to the voices of God, then He invades their sleep.
III. Suffering under the government of God is often added to instruction and entreaty (verses 19-22). The discipline of suffering is not confined to any one part of mans nature. It ranges freely through body, mind, and spirit. It appears in disordered nerves; in the failure of natural desires; or the very sources of health become choked and deranged; with many the joy of living is clouded with the shadow of an ever-present death. All this we recognise as the faithful picture of many a human life, and wonder at it. We call it a mystery; but the mystery ceases when we look at these things from the right angle of vision. Suffering under the government of God is a necessity of Divine benevolence. It is the last device of love. We have to learn that this world is not our real home. Nothing but suffering, in most lives, can work this healthful conviction. It is among the first laws of a successful life that the kingdom of Christ and its righteousness must stand before the kingdom of self and its pride. How do men learn this? The great mass of men are made perfect in this wisdom by means of suffering. They must be bitterly disappointed in their struggle after the lower things before they learn to put the first last and the last first. Failure is the keen knife that pierces their pride.
IV. Earthly afflictions cease when three results are attained when men understand their purpose (verse 23). When men turn to God with prayer (verse 26). And when they repent of their sins (verse 27). Understanding, prayer, penitence,–look at these conditions of relief for a moment. Affliction can do us no good till we bow to its meaning. The ends of all Gods acts are moral ends. As a result of affliction, how natural, as a condition of relief, how indispensable is prayer! The twin grace of prayer is penitence. Neither can survive the other. Neither can exist without the other. These three are the first fruits of sanctified trial. Only the doctrine of Divine providence, ruling the world for moral ends, has ever riven the dark clouds of human suffering, and drawn the blessing of their spring rain upon the hearts of men. (Sermons by Monday Club.)
The mission of sickness
I. The great incidency of human nature to sickness and bodily diseases. The best of men are not exempt from them. This incidency to sickness and bodily diseases is founded partly in the frame of our natures, partly the common accidents of life, but especially the great inlet to all calamity, namely, sin, and our fatal apostasy from God. Then what reasons we have for thankfulness, for every moments enjoyment or continuance of health. And as we should be thankful for health, we should be also submissive in sickness.
II. Sickness and bodily diseases have a great deal of instruction in them. It pleases God frequently to inflict them for this very end; that men might thereby be brought to the knowledge of themselves, and their duty towards Him. This may appear–
1. From a consideration of God, who has all along made it plain in the revelations of His Word, that He has that love and goodwill to mankind, He never afflicts them for afflictions sake.
2. From a consideration of the calamity itself. By diseases and sickness we are taught the absolute vanity and uncertainty of this world, with all the comforts of it; the beauty of all vanisheth before us upon a sick bed. By sickness we gain an easier insight into our own guilt, and all the unreasonable provocations we have given the Almighty, throughout the whole course of our lives. Sometimes the sin is read in the very distemper itself.
III. What an allay to so great a calamity it is to have a messenger or interpreter. Some understand here the ministry of an angel. The value of such a messenger may be seen–
1. In our indisposedness to do anything oft good purpose for ourselves.
2. The great mistakes we are apt to fall into.
3. A mediator is of further advantage, to implore God on our behalf. Learn to live under a wise expectation of such a calamity. Let us not despise at such times the help of Gods ministers. (Nathanael Resbury, D. D.)
The right improvement of sickness and other distress
I. A case of distress supposed. The words lead our thoughts to a very common spectacle–that of a person suffering under pain and dangerous illness, and oppressed at the same time by much darkness and anxiety of mind. These things very frequently go together. Without are fightings, within are fears.
II. It will be well to call in a competent adviser. Let him that is grieved with sickness send for his proper spiritual counsellor.
III. The text suggests what, in general, such an adviser will have to do. He must show unto the afflicted person Gods righteousness. In proportion as he shall be able to do this, through Divine grace, he will prove one of a thousand to him who is in want of guidance and consolation.
IV. They declare the consequences, through the Divine mercy, if sound counsel be faithfully followed. If the patient has a docile, sincere and childlike disposition of mind, the truth delivered will be blessed to him, and the fruits will show it. (E. Bather, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, c.]
IV. – AFFLICTIONS are a fourth means which God makes use of to awaken and convert sinners. In the hand of God these were the cause of the salvation of David, as himself testifies: Before I was afflicted, I went astray, Ps 119:67; Ps 119:71; Ps 119:75.
The multitude of his bones] By such diseases, especially those of a rheumatic kind, when to the patient’s apprehension every bone is diseased, broken, or out of joint.
Some render the passage, When the multitude of his bones is yet strong meaning those sudden afflictions which fall upon men when in a state of great firmness and vigour. The original, verob atsamaiv ethan, may be translated, And the strong multitude of his bones. Even the strong multitude of his bones is chastened with pain upon his bed; the place of rest and ease affording him no peace, quiet, or comfort.
The bones may be well termed multitudinous, as there are no less than 10 in the cranium, or skull; upper jaw, 13; lower jaw, 1; teeth, 32; tongue, 1; vertebrae, or back-bone, 24; ribs, 24; sternum, or breast-bone, 3; os innominatum, 1; scapula, or shoulder-blades, 2; arms, 6; hands, 54; thigh-bones, 2; knee-bones, 2; legs, 4; feet, 54: in all, not less than 233 bones, without reckoning the ossa sethamoides; because, though often numerous, they are found only in hard labourers, or elderly persons.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
With pain, or grief; with some painful and dangerous diseases, or bodily distempers, which is the second way whereby God instructs men and excites them to repentance; which also was Jobs case.
The multitude of his bones with strong pain; the pain pierceth his very bones, even all of them. Or, even the strong multitude of his bones, i.e. his bones, which are both many and strong. Or, according to another reading, the contention of his bones (i.e. the pain of his bones, whereby God contends with him) is strong. This also was Jobs case, Job 30:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. When man does not heedwarnings of the night, he is chastened, c. The new thought suggestedby Elihu is that affliction is disciplinary (Job36:10) for the good of the godly.
multitudeso theMargin, Hebrew (Keri). Better with the text (Chetib),”And with the perpetual (strong) contest of his bones”;the never-resting fever in his bones (Ps38:3) [UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,…. This seems to be another way, in which God, according to his eternal purposes, speaks unto men, as the word “also” intimates; namely, by afflictions, and sometimes painful ones; which have a voice in them, and men of wisdom will hearken to it, Mic 6:9. Pain here signifies not pain of the mind, or a wounded spirit, which is very afflicting, distressing, and intolerable; but pain of the body, as the next clause shows; and this endured on the bed, it being so great as to confine a man to his bed, or is what he felt there, where he might hope for ease and rest; see Job 7:13;
and the multitude of his bones with strong [pain]; not with a slight one, but a very strong one, such as those felt who gnawed their tongues for pain, Re 16:10. Jarchi interprets it, the multitude of his bones, which are strong; though they are hardy and strong, yet filled with exquisite pain; and not one, or a few of them, but a multitude of them, as there are a multitude of them in a man’s body; even all of them, as Hezekiah complains, which must be very excruciating indeed, Isa 38:13; and which was Job’s case; not only his flesh was in pain, through the sores and ulcers upon him, but his bones were pierced in him, and his sinews had no rest, and he was full of tossings to and fro, Job 7:3; and in this way he was, as other good men are, reproved and chastened by the Lord; and in which way he had spoke to him, as he does to others, and which should be attended to; and since such painful afflictions are but fatherly chastisements, they should be patiently endured, and the voice of God in them listened to, and before long there will be no more pain: the “Cetib”, or textual writing, is, “the contention of his bones is strong”; through pain, or with which God contends with men; we follow the marginal reading.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
And with the unceasing conflict of his limbs;
20 And his life causeth him to loathe bread,
And his soul dainty meat.
21 His flesh consumeth away to uncomeliness,
And his deranged limbs are scarcely to be seen.
22 Then his soul draweth near to the grave,
And his life to the destroyers.
Another and severer lesson which God teaches man is by painful sickness: he is chastened with pain ( of the means) on his bed, he and the vigorous number of his limbs, i.e., he with this hitherto vigorous (Raschi), or: while the multitude of his limbs is still vigorous (Ew). Thus is the Keri to be understood, for the interpretation: and the multitude of his limbs with unceasing pain (Arnh. after Aben-Ezra), is unnatural. But the Chethib is far more commendable: and with a constant tumult of his limbs (Hirz. and others). Job 33:19 might also be taken as a substantival clause: and the tumult of his limbs is unceasing (Umbr., Welte); but that taking over of from is simpler and more pleasing. (opposite of , e.g., Psa 38:4) is an excellent description of disease which consists in a disturbance of the equilibrium of the powers, in the dissolution of their harmony, in the excitement of one against another ( Psychol. S. 287). for belongs to the many defective forms of writing of this section. In Job 33:20 we again meet a Hebraeo-Arabic hapaxlegomenon. from . In Arab. zahuma signifies to stink, like the Aram. (whence , dirt and stench), zahama to thrust back, restrain, after which Abu Suleiman Dad Alfsi, in his Arabic Lexicon of the Hebrew, interprets: “his soul thrusts back ( ) food and every means of life,”
(Note: Vid., Pinsker’s Likkute Kadmoniot, p. .)
beside which the suff. of is taken as an anticipation of the following object (vid., on Job 29:3): his life feels disgust at it, at bread, and his soul at dainty meat. The Piel has then only the intensive signification of Kal (synon. , Psa 107:18), according to which it is translated by Hahn with many before him. But if the poet had wished to be so understood, he would have made use of a less ambiguous arrangement of the words, . We take with Ew. 122, b, as causative of Kal, in which signification the Piel, it is true, occurs but rarely, yet it does sometimes, instead of Hiph.; but without translating, with Hirz., by hunger and by appetite, which gives a confused thought. Schlottm. appropriately remarks: “It is very clearly expressed, as the proper vital power, the proper , when it is inwardly consumed by disease, gives one a loathing for that which it otherwise likes as being a necessary condition of its own existence.” Thus it is: health produces an appetite, sickness causes nausea; the soul that is in an uninjured normal state longs for food, that which is severely weakened by sickness turns the desire for dainties into loathing and aversion.
Job 33:21 The contracted future form , again, like , Job 33:11, is poetic instead of the full form: his flesh vanishes , from sight, i.s. so that it is seen no longer; or from comeliness, i.e., so that it becomes unsightly; the latter (comp. 1Sa 16:12 with Isa 53:2, ) might be preferred. In Job 33:21 the Keri corrects the text to , et contrita sunt , whereas the Chethib is to be read , et contritio . The verb , which has been explained by Saadia from the Talmudic,
(Note: He refers to b. Aboda zara 42 a: If a heathen have broken an idol to pieces ( ) to derive advantage from the pieces, both the (shattered) idol and the fragments ( ) are permitted (since both are deprived of their heathenish character).)
signifies conterere, comminuere ; Abulwald (in Ges. Thes.) interprets it here by suhifet wa – baradet , they are consumed and wasted away, and explains it by . The radical notion is that of scraping, scratching, rubbing away (not to be interchanged with Arab. sf’ , , which, starting from the radical notion of sweeping away, vanishing, comes to have that of wasting away; cognate, however, with the above Arab. shf , whence suhaf , consumption, prop. a rasure of the plumpness of the body). According to the Keri, Job 33:21 runs: and his bones (limbs) are shattered (fallen away), they are not seen, i.e., in their wasting away and shrivelling up they have lost their former pleasing form. Others, taking the bones in their strict sense, and in the signification to scrape away = lay bare, take as a relative clause, as Jer. has done: ossa quae tecta fuerant nudabuntur (rather nudata sunt ), but this ought with a change of mood to be … . To the former interpretation corresponds the unexceptionable Chethib: and the falling away of his limbs are not seen, i.e., ( per attractionem ) his wasting limbs are diminished until they are become invisible. is one of the four Old Testament words (Gen 43:26; Ezr 8:18; Lev 23:17) which have a Dagesh in the Aleph; in all four the Aleph stands between two vowels, and the dageshing (probably the remains of a custom in the system of pointing which has become the prevailing one, which, with these few exceptions, has been suffered to fall away) is intended to indicate that the Aleph is here to be carefully pronounced as a guttural (to use an Arabic expression, as Hamza), therefore in this passage ru – ‘u .
(Note: Vid., Luzzatto’s Grammatica della Lingua Ebraica (1853), 54. Ewald’s (21) view, that in these instances the pointed Aleph is to be read as j (therefore ruju ), is unfounded; moreover, the point over the Aleph is certainly only improperly called Dagesh, it might at least just as suitably be called Mappik.)
Thus, then, the soul (the bearer of the life of the body) of the sick man, at last succumbing to this process of decay, comes near to the pit, and his life to the , destroying angels (comp. Psa 78:49; 2Sa 24:16), i.e., the angels who are commissioned by God to slay the man, if he does not anticipate the decree of death by penitence. To understand the powers of death in general, with Rosenm., or the pains of death, with Schlottm. and others, does not commend itself, because the Elihu section has a strong angelological colouring in common with the book of Job. The following strophe, indeed, in contrast to the , speaks of an angel that effects deliverance from death.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: 20 So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. 21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. 22 Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. 23 If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: 24 Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. 25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: 26 He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness. 27 He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; 28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
God has spoken once to sinners by their own consciences, to keep them from the paths of the destroyer, but they perceive it not; they are not aware that the checks their own hearts give them in a sinful way are from God, but they are imputed to melancholy or the preciseness of their education; and therefore God speaks twice; he speaks a second time, and tries another way to convince and reclaim sinners, and that is by providences, afflictive and merciful (in which he speaks twice), and by the seasonable instructions of good ministers setting in with them. Job complained much of his diseases and judged by them that God was angry with him; his friends did so too: but Elihu shows that they were all mistaken, for God often afflicts the body in love, and with gracious designs of good to the soul, as appears in the issue. This part of Elihu’s discourse will be of great use to us for the due improvement of sickness, in and by which God speaks to men. Here is,
I. The patient described in his extremity. See what work sickness makes (v. 19, c.) when God sends it with commission. Do this, and doeth it. 1. The sick man is full of pain all over him (<i>v. 19): He is chastened with pain upon his bed, such pain as confines him to his bed, or so extreme the pain is that he can get no ease, no, not on his bed, where he would repose himself. Pain and sickness will turn a bed of down into a bed of thorns, on which he that used to sleep now tosses to and fro till the dawning of the day. The case, as here put, is very bad. Pain is borne with more difficulty than sickness, and with that the patient here is chastened, not a dull heavy pain, but strong and acute; and frequently the stronger the patient the stronger the pain, for the more sanguine the complexion is the more violent, commonly, the disease is. It is not the smarting of the flesh that is complained of, but the aching of the bones. It is an inward rooted pain; and not only the bones of one limb, but the multitude of the bones, are thus chastened. See what frail, what vile bodies we have, which, though receiving no external hurt, may be thus pained from causes within themselves. See what work sin makes, what mischief it does. Pain is the fruit of sin; yet, by the grace of God, the pain of the body is often made a means of good to the soul. 2. He has quite lost his appetite, the common effect of sickness (v. 20): His life abhorreth bread, the most necessary food, and dainty meat, which he most delighted in, and formerly relished with a great deal of pleasure. This is a good reason why we should not be desirous of dainties, because they are deceitful meat, Prov. xxiii. 3. We may be soon made as sick of them as we are now fond of them; and those who live in luxury when they are well, if ever they come, by reason of sickness, to loathe dainty meat, may, with grief and shame, read their sin in their punishment. Let us not inordinately love the taste of meat, for the time may come when we may even loathe the sight of meat, Ps. cvii. 18. 3. He has become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, v. 21. By sickness, perhaps a few days’ sickness, his flesh, which was fat, and fair, is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; it is strangely wasted and gone: and his bones, which were buried in flesh, now stick out; you may count his ribs, may tell all his bones. The soul that is well nourished with the bread of life sickness will not make lean, but it soon makes a change in the body.
| “He who, before, had such a beauteous air, And, pampered with the ease, seemed plump and fair Doth all his friends (amazing change!) surprise With pale lean cheeks and ghastly hollow eyes; His bones (a horrid sight) start through his skin, Which lay before, in flesh and fat, unseen.” |
| Sir R. BLACKMORE. |
4. He is given up for gone, and his life despaired of (v. 22): His soul draws near to the grave, that is, he has all the symptoms of death upon him, and in the apprehension of all about him, as well as in his own, he is a dying man. The pangs of death, here called the destroyers, are just ready to seize him; they compass him about, Ps. cxvi. 3. Perhaps it intimates the very dreadful apprehensions which those have of death as a destroying thing, when it stares them in the face, who, when it was at a distance, made light of it. All agree when it comes to the point, whatever they thought of it before, that it is a serious thing to die.
II. The provision made for his instruction, in order to a sanctified use of his affliction, that, when God in that way speaks to man, he may be heard and understood, and not speak in vain, v. 23. He is happy if there be a messenger with him to attend him in his sickness, to convince, counsel, and comfort him, an interpreter to expound the providence and give him to understand the meaning of it, a man of wisdom that knows the voice of the rod and its interpretation; for, when God speaks by afflictions, we are frequently so unversed in the language, that we have need of an interpreter, and it is well if we have such a one. The advice and help of a good minister are as needful and seasonable, and should be as acceptable, in sickness, as of a good physician, especially if he be well skilled in the art of explaining and improving providences; he is then one of a thousand, and to be valued accordingly. His business at such a time is to show unto man his uprightness, that is, God’s uprightness, that in faithfulness he afflicts him and does him no wrong, which it is necessary to be convinced of in order to our making a due improvement of the affliction: or, rather, it may mean man’s uprightness, or rectitude. 1. The uprightness that is. If it appear that the sick person is truly pious, the interpreter will not do as Job’s friends had done, make it his business to prove him a hypocrite because he is afflicted, but on the contrary will show him his uprightness, notwithstanding his afflictions, that he may take the comfort of it, and be easy, whatever the event is. 2. The uprightness, the reformation, that should be, in order to life and peace. When men are made to see the way of uprightness to be the only way, and a sure way to salvation, and to choose it, and walk in it accordingly, the work is done.
III. God’s gracious acceptance of him, upon his repentance, v. 24. When he sees that the sick person is indeed convinced that sincere repentance, and that uprightness which is gospel perfection, are his interest as well as his duty, then he that waits to be gracious, and shows mercy upon the first indication of true repentance, is gracious unto him, and takes him into his favour and thoughts for good. Wherever God finds a gracious heart he will be found a gracious God; and, 1. He will give a gracious order for his discharge. He says, Deliver him (that is, let him be delivered) from going down to the pit, from that death which is the wages of sin. When afflictions have done their work they shall be removed. When we return to God in a way of duty he will return to us in a way of mercy. Those shall be delivered from going down to the pit who receive God’s messengers, and rightly understand his interpreters, so as to subscribe to his uprightness. 2. He will give a gracious reason for this order: I have found a ransom, or propitiation; Jesus Christ is that ransom, so Elihu calls him, as Job had called him his Redeemer, for he is both the purchaser and the price, the priest and the sacrifice; so high was the value put upon souls that nothing less would redeem them, and so great the injury done by sin that nothing less would atone for it than the blood of the Son of God, who gave his life a ransom for many. This is a ransom of God’s finding, a contrivance of Infinite Wisdom; we could never have found it ourselves, and the angels themselves could never have found it. It is the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, and such an invention as is and will be the everlasting wonder of those principalities and powers that desire to look into it. Observe how God glories in the invention here, heureka, heureka–“I have found, I have found, the ransom; I, even I, am he that has done it.”
IV. The recovery of the sick man hereupon. Take away the cause and the effect will cease. When the patient becomes a penitent see what a blessed change follows. 1. His body recovers its health, v. 25. This is not always the consequence of a sick man’s repentance and return to God, but sometimes it is; and recovery from sickness is a mercy indeed when it arises from the remission of sin; then it is in love to the soul that the body is delivered from the pit of corruption when God casts our sins behind his back, Isa. xxxviii. 17. That is the method of a blessed recovery. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee; and then, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,Mat 9:2; Mat 9:6. So here, interest him in the ransom, and then his flesh shall be fresher than a child’s and there shall be no remains of his distemper, but he shall return to the days of his youth, to the beauty and strength which he had then. When the distemper that oppressed nature is removed how strangely does nature help itself, in which the power and goodness of the God of nature must be thankfully acknowledged! By such merciful providences as these, which afflictions give occasion for, God speaketh once, yea, twice, to the children of men, letting them know (if they would but perceive it) their dependence upon him and his tender compassion of them. 2. His soul recovers it peace, v. 26. (1.) The patient, being a penitent, is a supplicant, and has learned to pray. He knows God will be sought unto for his favours, and therefore he shall pray unto God, pray for pardon, pray for health. Is any afflicted, and sick? Let him pray. When he finds himself recovering he shall not then think that prayer is no longer necessary, for we need the grace of God as much for the sanctifying of a mercy as for the sanctifying of an affliction. (2.) His prayers are accepted. God will be favourable to him, and be well pleased with him; his anger shall be turned away from him, and the light of God’s countenance shall shine upon his soul; and then it follows, (3.) That he has the comfort of communion with God. He shall now see the face of God, which before was hid from him, and he shall see it with joy, for what sight can be more reviving? See Gen. xxxiii. 10, As though I had seen the face of God. All true penitents rejoice more in the returns of God’s favour than in any instance whatsoever of prosperity or pleasure, Psa 4:6; Psa 4:7. (4.) He has a blessed tranquility of mind, arising from the sense of his justification before God, who will render unto this man his righteousness. He shall receive the atonement, that is, the comfort of it, Rom. v. 11. Righteousness shall be imputed to him, and peace thereupon spoken, the joy and gladness of which he shall then be made to hear though he could not hear them in the day of his affliction. God will now deal with him as a righteous man, with whom it shall be well. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteousness, Ps. xxiv. 5. God shall give him grace to go and sin no more. Perhaps this may denote the reformation of his life after his recovery. As he shall pray unto God, whom before he had slighted, so he shall render to man his righteousness, whom before he had wronged, shall make restitution, and for the future do justly.
V. The general rule which God will go by in dealing with the children of men inferred from this instance, Job 33:27; Job 33:28. As sick people, upon their submission, are restored, so all others that truly repent of their sins shall find mercy with God. See here, 1. What sin is, and what reason we have not to sin. Would we know the nature of sin and the malignity of it? It is the perverting of that which is right; it is a most unjust unreasonable thing; it is the rebellion of the creature against the Creator, the usurped dominion of the flesh over the spirit, and a contradiction to the eternal rules and reasons of good and evil. It is perverting the right ways of the Lord (Acts xiii. 10), and therefore the ways of sin are called crooked ways, Ps. cxxv. 5. Would we know what is to be got by sin? It profiteth us not. The works of darkness are unfruitful works. When profit and loss come to be balanced all the gains of sin, put them all together, will come far short of countervailing the damage. All true penitents are ready to own this, and it is a mortifying consideration. Rom. vi. 21, What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? 2. See what repentance is, and what reason we have to repent. Would we approve ourselves true penitents? We must then, with a broken and contrite heart, confess our sins to God, 1 John i. 9. We must confess the fact of sin (I have sinned) and not deny the charge, or stand upon our own justification; we must confess the fault of sin, the iniquity, the dishonesty of it ( have perverted that which was right); we must confess the folly of sin–“so foolish have I been and ignorant, for it profited me not; and therefore what have I to do any more with it?” Is there not good reason why we should make such a penitent confession as this? For, (1.) God expect it. He looks upon men, when they have sinned, to see what they will do next, whether they will go on in it or whether they will bethink themselves and return. He hearkens and hears whether any say, What have I done? Jer. viii. 6. He looks upon sinners with an eye of compassion, desiring to hear this from them; for he has no pleasure in their ruin. He looks upon them, and, as soon as he perceives these workings of repentance in them, he encourages them and is ready to accept them (Psa 32:5; Psa 32:6), as the father went forth to meet the returning prodigal. (2.) It will turn to our unspeakable advantage. The promise is general. If any humble himself thus, whoever he be, [1.] He shall not come into condemnation, but be saved from the wrath to come: He shall deliver his soul from going into the pit, the pit of hell; iniquity shall not be his ruin. [2.] He shall be happy in everlasting life and joy: His life shall see the light, that is, all good, in the vision and fruition of God. To obtain this bliss, if the prophet had bidden us do some great thing, would we not have done it? How much more when he only says unto us, Wash and be clean, confess and be pardoned, repent and be saved?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
TEXT 33:1922
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
And with continual strife in his bones;
20 So that his life abhorreth bread,
And his soul dainty food.
21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen;
And his bones that were not seen stick out.
22 Yea, his soul draweth near unto the pit,
And his life to the destroyers.
COMMENT 33:1922
Job. 33:19Jobs afflictions were to humble him; instead by his rebelliousness he reveals his profound pride, which is at the heart of all sin. Eliphaz had earlier said that Job was visited with pain upon his bedJob. 5:17; Deu. 8:5; Pro. 3:12; Psalms 38. He has agony (rib mean conflict or strife, A. V. continual strife) in his bones. Elihu is saying that God speaks in the discipline of suffering, in the torment of pain.
Job. 33:20Here life clearly means appetite. It is parallel to soul which also means appetite in the second lineJob. 38:39; Psa. 107:17.
Job. 33:21His sickness destroys his appetite. The lack of food causes his body to waste away, and his bones stick outlit. and his bones which were not seen are laid bareJer. 3:2; Jer. 3:21. His bones protrude because of a lack of flesh to cover them up.
Job. 33:22The allusion is perhaps to the destroying angels2Sa. 24:16; 2Ki. 19:35; 1Ch. 21:15; Psa. 78:49. The parallelism between pitsahatand killersmemitimindicates that the reference is to the abode of the dead.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(19) He is chastened.This is the second manner in which God speaksfirst by dreams, &c., then by afflictions.
And the multitude of his bones with strong pain.Or, reading it otherwise, we may render, And with continual strife in his bonese.g., rheumatism and gout.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. THE SECOND MODE OF DIVINE VISITATION IS BY GRIEVOUS, DANGEROUS DISEASE. Affliction is in itself the voice of God to the soul: its design being to accomplish purposes in respect to which the first mode of visitation is insufficient. Elihu thus meets the murmurs of Job over affliction in the abstract, and his own in particular; and assures him that his longing for God to answer is already met by the chastenings of disease, Job 33:19-22.
19. He is chastened For the enlightened views of Eliphaz on the subject of afflictions, see Job 5:17-18. The difference between the two is, that Eliphaz fails to recognize their purifying and sanctifying influence on the heart. “He sees in them a fire that scorches and burns, not one that refines and clarifies, as the furnace refines silver.” WORDSWORTH. Comp. 1Pe 1:6 ; 1Pe 4:19. The multitude of his bones Rather as in the Kethib, and with a conflict in his bones continually. Justin (xxiii, 2) says of the last sickness of Agathocles, that “a pestilential humour spreading through all his nerves and joints, he was tormented, as it were, by an intestine war among all his members.” With the ancient Hebrew, health meant “soundness,” “peace;” and the same word, shalom, was used for all three. On the contrary, disease entailed a disharmony, conflict, and strife in the whole being, here represented by the bones, the framework of man.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 33:19. He is chastened also with pain Or if he is chastened with great pains on his bed, and he crieth out aloud, through great pain in his bones; Job 33:20. And his life abhorrethver. 21 his flesh wasteth visibly awayver. 22 and his life draweth to those that are slain.ver. 23. If there is nigh him a Messenger, one that is eloquent, one among a thousand, to represent to man the righteousness of Godver. 24. Then he is gracious unto him, &c. Job 33:27. He shall utter his song before men, and shall say, I sinned, I perverted that which is right; I acted a wrong part: Job 33:28. He hath delivered my soul from going down into the pit; my life also shall behold the light. Heath and Houb. Bp. Warburton says, that this passage, to the end of the 30th verse, “contains the most circumstantial account of God’s dealing with Hezekiah, as it is told in the books of Chronicles and Kings.” That there is a likeness in circumstances may be allowed; but then we say, that it is a most circumstantial account of the way of curing diseases in those ancient times; and so may be reckoned as a mark, and no inconsiderable one, of the antiquity of the book. For it shews the book to have been written, or at least the history of it to bear date, before physic was studied so as to become a distinct profession, and when distempers, according to the simplicity of the first ages, were looked upon as inflictions from the hand of God for the sins of men; and therefore the messenger of God, the interpreter of his will, or the prophet, was to be applied to for the cure of them. And in this view, it is no wonder if the circumstances fall in very naturally with the history of Hezekiah, who was so remarkably restored by the prophet Isaiah. However, that there can be no allusion here intended to the recovery of Hezekiah, which was a single and extraordinary instance, seems plain; for Elihu tells us in the following verses, that this way of recovering from diseases was then common and usual; Job 33:29-30. Lo! all these things God worketh oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living. Instead of oftentimes, the Hebrew indeed is three times, a certain number for an uncertain; and it is said to be God’s usual way of dealing with the same person, to raise him once, twice, and thrice, perhaps, or oftener, from the bed of sickness. But, though we read of many extraordinary cures in the Bible, yet I think there is no one instance of the same person’s having received this special favour above once. There is a passage in the 107th Psalm not very unlike to this of Job; and yet I suppose no one will think that it has any respect to the sickness and recovery of Hezekiah, especially if the psalm be David’s, as seems not improbable. The whole of it is an admirable composition, not unworthy of the pen of the royal prophet: see Job 33:17-20 where the description, I think, suits Hezekiah’s case nearly as well as the other: and yet that the Psalmist, whoever he was, could not have Hezekiah’s case in his thoughts, seems plain; because, if he had, he would no doubt, for decency’s sake, have avoided the first word in the description: Fools, because, &c. That he had this very passage of Job in his thoughts, seems highly probable; since he has borrowed from this same chapter of Job the 40th verse of the Psalm, word for word, as Bishop Hare observes upon the place.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Elihu opens his discourse with an application to Job by name, whom his friends had never thus addressed. He begs a favourable hearing, and that he would weigh his arguments entire. They were the product of mature deliberation, and flowed from the sincerity of his soul: he hoped to speak clearly to his understanding, and convincingly to his conscience. Endued with a reasonable soul as a man, and renewed in the spirit of his mind as a gracious man, he might expect attention; and was ready to hear, in return, whatever Job could farther say for himself. He had desired one on the behalf of God, that he might plead with him: Lo! he is here; one in his own nature, fashioned from the same clay, whose terror would not scare him as if God himself appeared, nor his hand be heavy on him: he would bring no such railing accusation as his friends had done: he proposes to convince him by the weight of his arguments, not run him down by the violence of his words.
Note; (1.) We are bound to hear a discourse intire, before we form a judgment upon it. (2.) They who speak for God have need of deep and serious deliberation; and should be more solicitous to speak plain, so as to be understood, than fine, that they may be admired.
2nd, Job had boasted, chap. Job 31:36 how easily he would bear on his shoulders every charge that could be brought against him; but Elihu will convince him that the burden is heavier than he is aware.
1. He open his charge against Job for words spoken openly and publicly to the dishonour of God, and reflecting on his adorable perfections; and against such every hearer is ever bound to bear a public testimony.
[1.] He had said, I am clean without transgression, I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me; this might be collected from chap. Job 10:6-7 Job 13:2-3 Job 27:5-6 or, perhaps, Job might in express words have asserted it, though not recorded in the controversy; not that he pleaded he was not a sinner, but he had too high an opinion of his own integrity, insisted upon it too much, and thereby drew unjust reflections on God, for afflicting a person so righteous as he conceived himself to be.
[2.] He had represented God as severe and cruel, seeking occasion to quarrel with him, and without cause treating him as an enemyexpressions highly irreverent, and deserving just censure. See chap. Job 13:24; Job 13:27 Job 14:16-17 Job 19:11.; for these things, therefore,
2. Elihu proposes to plead with Job. Behold, take notice of it as an important truth, in this thou art not just; however upright in general he allowed his conduct to have been, here it was indefensibly culpable. Therefore, I will answer thee, confute these bold assertions, and this on the clearest principles. (1.) That God is greater than man; and therefore it is both foolish and arrogant to find fault with him; why dost thou strive against him? whose wisdom, power, justice, and truth, are not only above comparison, but above our comprehension? Note; This one consideration should for ever silence every murmur against God’s ways and providences. (2.) He is sovereign in his dispensations, for he giveth not account of any of his matters: Who shall question the eternal Majesty, and say to him what dost thou? or, as others interpret the words, he giveth not an account of all his matters; there are secrets of Providence which he reserves to himself, and into which it were presumption to pretend to pry.
3rdly. Though God is not obliged to give any account of his matters, yet he never deals with men so unreasonably as Job suggested; but if we attend to his notices, we may perceive his designs towards us. For God speaketh once, yea, twice repeats his admonitions, and in a variety of ways, by secret remonstrances with our consciences from his word and spirit, by his afflictive providences, and by his ministers; yet man perceiveth it not: negligent or perverse, he regards not the inward admonition, nor adverts to the chastening rod, nor hears the voice of the wise: or the words may be rendered, a second time he doth not revise it, the words yet man being not in the original: his counsels need not a second thought. All is planned with perfection of wisdom and justice, and therefore to be submitted to with implicit resignation.
1. He speaks to men in a dream, which, before there was any written word, was frequently the method that God took to convey the notices of his will. See Gen 20:3; Gen 31:24 in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed: Then, when the senses are locked up in repose, he openeth the ears of men, not of the body, but of the soul, and sealeth their instruction or chastisement; conveys admonitions to their conscience, and assures them of the certainty of his chastisements, if they take not warning: and when they awake the dream is not forgotten; but the lively traces of it remain, as wax bears the impression of the seal.
2. He hath designs of mercy in these notices that he gives. [1.] That he may withdraw man from his purpose, prevent him from the sin into which he was ready to rush, and work a divine change on his temper and disposition. [2.] And hide pride from man by restraining the proud from their purposes; or that he may humble and subdue the spirit of his believing people, too reluctant in their submission to his providential will. [3.] He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword, when he is on the brink of present and eternal ruin, he is warned, and, if he take the warning, is plucked as a brand from the burning. Note; (1.) Proud resistance against the secret admonitions of God, is wilful rebellion, and will end in reprobacy. (2.) It is an unspeakable mercy to be visited with notices of our danger, and to have a faithful monitor within. (3.) The soul which perishes, will only have itself to blame; for God can say, I would have gathered you, and ye would not.
4thly. Various ways hath God to speak to the souls of men by his word and providences.
1. He inflicts man with disease; pain universal as acute, seizes the body. The appetite is lost. Pining waste consumes him to a skeleton. Death appears in full view, and the grave opens to receive him. Note; (1.) How soon may the softest pillow cease to afford repose to the throbbing head! (2.) If we be able to relish our food, let us acknowledge the mercy, and not abuse it to luxury, lest God, as a just punishment, should bring us to loath even dainty meat. (3.) The strongest constitution is a feeble barrier against the wastes that disease will make. Let not the strong man glory in his strength.
2. When affliction is laid on the body, God sends instruction to the soul, if there be a messenger with him, a godly minister, or rather that divine Messenger sent from heaven, on purpose to teach men the way of salvation; an interpreter, able to expound the design of dark providences, and to open the Scriptures with clearness and conviction to the conscience; one among a thousand, as an able minister may justly be reckoned; or it peculiarly refers to the Great Prophet, the chief of ten thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness; either the uprightness of God in afflicting him, or the path of duty proper for his present condition, in order to the right improvement of the affliction; or the infinite merit of the great Messiah, the antetype of all the sacrifices, whom Job had already acknowledged as his Redeemer, and who, to the believer who lives by faith in him is the most solid support against all the fears of death, and the living fountain of comfort and safety. Note; (1.) Most people in sickness are much readier to send for the physician for their body, than the minister of God for their soul. (2.) The great endeavour of a wise interpreter is, to lead the afflicted to an humbling acknowledgement of the righteousness of God in their sufferings, and to point the troubled soul to the infinite merit of Jesus as its only hope against the condemnation of sin.
3. The gracious effects are set forth, which thereupon ensue. [1.] To the soul, pardon and redemption; Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit, the pit of death, and hell the wages of sin, for I have found a ransom, have accepted the offering of the Redeemer in the sinner’s stead. [2.] To the body, the restoration of health and ease; his flesh shall be fresher than a child’s, as if his life were again renewed; he shall return to the day of his youth; become healthy, vigorous, and strong. Note; (1.) There is a ransom paid and accepted for all who will be saved by grace, with which God declares himself well pleased and satisfied. (2.) When God’s chastisements have answered their end, he is pleased often in mercy to remove them, and give health of body, as well as health of soul, to the believer.
4. The grateful returns that such a person makes for the mercies he has received are, [1.] Prayer and thanksgiving. He shall pray unto God for the continuance of his mercy and grace, and praise him for what he has experienced, and he will be favourable unto him; will hear and answer him; and he shall see his face with joy, God will lift up the light of his countenance, and fill the soul with divine consolations, for he will render unto man his righteousness, will deal with the person recovered according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, and accept of his person and of his works through the merit of the Redeemer. [2.] He will give glory to God, by humble confession of his sins. He looketh upon men, and will justify God’s afflicting hand upon him, and will say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, have justly offended the eternal majesty, and it profited me not, I found no advantage or comfort in the way of evil; therefore I will return to him from whom I have so greatly departed. Note; (1.) Sin is not only rebellion against God, but an offence against sound reason, as tending to our eternal ruin. (2.) Every sinner will find the ways of iniquity utterly unprofitable; they neither bring him present peace, nor can secure for him the least support against a day of evil. [3.] He encourages others, by his own experience, to make their application to God, and expect the like mercy: He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, or, He hath delivered my soul from going down to the pit, hath saved from death and hell, and his life, or my life, shall see the light; present prosperity and comfort, and eternal blessedness and glory, await the faithful. (1.) We are bound, for other’s good, as well as in gratitude to God, to speak of the things that he hath done for our souls. (2.) They who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, cannot but become advocates for him with others, to come and experience, with them, how good the Lord is, and how blessed the man who putteth his trust in him.
The 27th and 28th verses may also be interpreted of God’s regard to other sinners in a like state of affliction, who on their humble confession are restored, and made to partake of his favour and regard.
5thly, Elihu, having shewn how God speaks to man, here sums up the great purpose of all these dispensations.
1. They are designed for man’s good, to bring back his soul from the paths of sin and ignorance, and thereby to rescue him from the pit of eternal misery; to be enlightened with the light of the living, to partake of the present blessings of divine teaching and grace, in order to the better and more valuable possessions of the eternal inheritance among the saints in light. Note; (1.) Departure from God necessarily ends in eternal ruin, if we be not recovered. (2.) God leaves no man without admonition; if men perish, their ruin lies at their own door. (3.) If any sinner’s soul be recovered from the paths of the destroyer, he will wholly ascribe it to the free and saving grace of God.
2. He concludes with a desire that job would mark well what he had said. He is ready to hear, if Job has aught to reply, and would take more pleasure in justifying than condemning him; but if he acknowledged the truth of what he had urged, he would proceed with his discourse, and doubted not but Job’s attention to it would be repaid with wisdom and instruction. Note; (1.) A faithful friend never loves to find fault, and is happy to be undeceived, if he has been mistaken or misinformed. (2.) The wisest men are always the most willing to learn. Superficial attainments puff up, but solid wisdom humbles.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 33:19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong [pain]:
Ver. 19. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed ] He is chastened or chidden, Coarguitur dolore; for all diseases are vocal; they are real reprehensions. As God is said to hold his peace when he punisheth not, Psa 50:21 Isa 42:14 , so to preach and reprove when he doth, Isa 26:9 ; Isa 28:19 . Thus God, by chastening David, instructed him every morning, Psa 73:14 . His reins also taught him in the night season. Sickness, saith one, is the shop of virtue. It is morum disciplina, felicitatis meditatorium, voluntatis Dei schola, saith another. King Alfred found it so, and therefore besought God to send him ever and anon some fit of sickness; for that, saith he, I ever find myself best when worst, best in soul when worst in body, the sickness of this is a medicine to that.
And the multitude of his bones with strong pain
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
chastened: Job 5:17, Job 5:18, Deu 8:5, Psa 94:12, Psa 119:67, Psa 119:71, Isa 27:9, 1Co 11:32, Rev 3:19
pain: Job 7:4, Job 20:11, Job 30:17, 2Ch 16:10, 2Ch 16:12, Psa 38:1-8, Isa 37:12, Isa 37:13
Reciprocal: 2Ki 20:5 – I will heal Job 4:14 – all my bones Job 14:22 – his flesh Job 19:20 – bone Job 36:8 – if Psa 6:2 – my Psa 30:3 – brought Psa 31:9 – my soul Psa 35:10 – All Psa 38:3 – soundness Psa 103:4 – redeemeth Psa 107:18 – abhorreth Isa 38:16 – General Mic 6:13 – I make
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 33:19-30. There is a second way, when a man is brought near to death, and the destroying angels wait to take his life. Then an angel of mercy instructs man in the meaning of his suffering, intercedes for him, and provides a ransom from the destroyer, so that he is restored to health, and avows before men his own sin and Gods mercy. In these and other ways God savingly deals with men.
In Job 33:21 read his flesh is consumed by wasting (Duhm), instead of consumed that it cannot be seen. The developed angelology of the above passage is very notable. Duhm says that it makes it probable that the Elihu speeches are very late. The idea of spirits hostile to or protective of the soul can hardly have originated without foreign influence, though we can hardly determine whether we have before us Persian or Egyptian or other ideas. Compare the angels in Daniel and Tobit. What the ransom mentioned in Job 33:24 is, we are not told; it is supposed to be the sufferers affliction (Job 36:18).