Job 33:1

JOB 33

A CONTINUATION OF THE SPEECH OF ELIHU

This chapter does nothing to improve our low estimate of the quality of Elihu's long tirade. He is patronizing, referring to Job by name, as though addressing an intimate or an inferior, something that Job's three friends had refrained from doing throughout the whole book. His talk is loaded with repetitions; and "He protests too much about his sincerity (Job 33:2f)."[1] Furthermore, he is not perfectly fair with Job. Job had never claimed absolute perfection, admitting minor transgressions and mistakes; but he insisted that he had committed no violent crimes or immoralities that could have been the basis of divine punishment. Also, Job had not accused God of malice or injustice. Of course, he had complained bitterly that things that happened to him were undeserved and unjust; but his mention of such things as coming from God should always be understood as meaning, merely, that God had allowed them to happen. Job might not always have made that distinction clear in his words to his friends. As Andersen noted, "Job had never accused God of dishonesty or injustice; although his words might have seemed to Job's friends that he had indeed done so."[2] The Bible, however, makes it clear that Job had never spoken anything about God that was not right (Job 42:7).

ELIHU DEMANDS THAT JOB HEARKEN TO HIM

Job 33:1-7

"Howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech,

And hearken to all my words.

Behold now, I have opened my mouth;

My tongue hath spoken in my mouth.

My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart;

And that which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.

The Spirit of God hath made me,

And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.

If thou canst, answer thou me;

Set thy words in order before me, stand forth.

Behold, I am toward God even as thou art:

I also am formed out of the clay.

Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid,

Neither shall my pressure be heavy upon thee."

"Hear my speech ...hearken to all my words... I have opened my mouth ... my tongue hath spoken in my mouth ... my words shall utter ... my lips ... shall speak" (Job 33:1-3). What a pompous and bombastic line this is! What does it mean? "Watch him! This bloke is going to say something!"

"The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me life" (Job 33:4). "Elihu apparently means to suggest that he has the charismatic gift of divine wisdom which was deficient in his elders who were not able to confute Job successfully."[3]

"Answer thou me ... stand forth" (Job 33:5). The weakness of such demands appears in the fact that, to this point in Elihu's speech, he had not said anything that demanded an answer.

"My terror shall not make thee afraid" (Job 33:7). "Elihu here alludes to Job's charges that God intimidates him (Job 9:34; 13:21); and he here assures Job that this charge cannot be made in the present situation, since Job's opponent here is a mere mortal."[4]