📖 Job 33
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Elihu Invites Job’s Attention“But now, O Job, listen to my words, and hear everything I have to say!
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See now, I have opened my mouth; my tongue in my mouth has spoken.
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My words come from the uprightness of my heart, and my lips will utter knowledge sincerely.
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The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
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Reply to me, if you can; set your arguments in order before me and take your stand!
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Look, I am just like you in relation to God; I too have been molded from clay.
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Therefore no fear of me should terrify you, nor should my pressure be heavy on you.
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Elihu Rejects Job’s Plea of Innocence“Indeed, you have said in my hearing(I heard the sound of the words!):
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‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean and have no iniquity.
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Yet God finds occasions with me; he regards me as his enemy!
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He puts my feet in shackles; he watches closely all my paths.’
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Now in this, you are not right– I answer you, for God is greater than a human being.
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Why do you contend against him, that he does not answer all a person’s words?
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Elihu Disagrees With Job’s View of God“For God speaks, the first time in one way, the second time in another, though a person does not perceive it.
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In a dream, a night vision, when deep sleep falls on people as they sleep in their beds.
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Then he gives a revelation to people, and terrifies them with warnings,
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to turn a person from his sin, and to cover a person’s pride.
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He spares a person’s life from corruption, his very life from crossing over the river.
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Or a person is chastened by pain on his bed, and with the continual strife of his bones,
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so that his life loathes food, and his soul rejects appetizing fare.
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His flesh wastes away from sight, and his bones, which were not seen, are easily visible.
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He draws near to the place of corruption, and his life to the messengers of death.
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If there is an angel beside him, one mediator out of a thousand, to tell a person what constitutes his uprightness;
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and if God is gracious to him and says,‘Spare him from going down to the place of corruption, I have found a ransom for him,’
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then his flesh is restored like a youth’s; he returns to the days of his youthful vigor.
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He entreats God, and God delights in him, he sees God’s face with rejoicing, and God restores to him his righteousness.
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That person sings to others, saying:‘I have sinned and falsified what is right, but I was not punished according to what I deserved.
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He redeemed my life from going down to the place of corruption, and my life sees the light!’
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Elihu’s Appeal to Job“Indeed, God does all these things, twice, three times, in his dealings with a person,
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to turn back his life from the place of corruption, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
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Pay attention, Job– listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
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If you have any words, reply to me; speak, for I want to justify you.
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If not, you listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”