Job 30:17(v19)In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
Malachi 3:1(v23)“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the…
Job 19:20(v21)My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Psalms 49:7-8(v24)none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is…
Ecclesiastes 7:28(v23)which my soul still seeks, but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all those.
Show all 99 cross-references
2 Corinthians 5:20(v23)We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Job 5:17-18(v19)“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For he wounds and binds up. He…
Job 33:18(v24)He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
Haggai 1:13(v23)Then Haggai, Yahweh’s messenger, spoke Yahweh’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says Yahweh.
Malachi 2:7(v23)For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies.
Matthew 20:28(v24)even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
1 Peter 1:18-19(v24)knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your…
Psalms 94:12(vv19, 23)Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah, and teach out of your law,
Exodus 33:19(v24)He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be…
2 Samuel 24:16(v22)When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed…
Job 3:24(v20)For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
Job 7:5(v21)My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
Job 13:28(v21)though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Job 22:21(v24)“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.
Job 33:28(v22)He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life will see the light.’
Job 36:3(v23)I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
Job 36:8-13(v23)If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions, then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they…
Job 37:23(v23)We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.
Psalms 107:17-18(v20)Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities. Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to…
Psalms 119:71(v19)It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
Psalms 119:75(v23)Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Proverbs 5:11(v21)You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
Isaiah 61:1-3(v23)The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken…
Lamentations 3:22-23(v23)It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning.…
Lamentations 3:32(v23)For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
Lamentations 3:39-41(v23)Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let’s lift…
Ezekiel 18:25-28(v23)“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal? When the…
Daniel 9:14(v23)Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we…
Hosea 14:4(v24)“I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.
Micah 7:18-20(v24)Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
Zechariah 9:11(v24)As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.
Romans 5:20-21(v24)The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even…
1 Corinthians 11:32(v19)But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
1 Timothy 2:6(v24)who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times,
Hebrews 12:5-12(v23)You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor…
Genesis 3:6(v20)When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one…
Exodus 12:23(v22)For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass…
Exodus 34:6-7(v24)Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness…
Deuteronomy 8:5(v19)You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you.
Judges 2:1(v23)Yahweh’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give…
1 Samuel 2:6(v22)“Yahweh kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and brings up.
2 Chronicles 16:10(v19)Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Asa oppressed some of the…
2 Chronicles 16:12(v19)In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet. His disease was exceedingly great: yet in his disease he didn’t seek…
2 Chronicles 36:15-16(v23)Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and…
Nehemiah 9:33(v23)However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
Job 7:4(v19)When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
Job 7:7(v22)Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.
Job 9:3(v23)If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
Job 11:6(v23)that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity…
Job 14:20(v21)You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
Job 14:22(v21)But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”
Job 15:21(v22)A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
Job 16:8(v21)You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.
Job 17:1(v22)“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, and the grave is ready for me.
Job 17:13-16(v22)If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm,…
Job 20:11(v19)His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.
Job 34:10(v23)“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should…
Job 34:12(v23)Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
Job 34:32(v23)Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
Job 35:14(v23)How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
Job 36:10-11(v24)He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. If they listen and serve him, they will spend their…
Job 36:18(v24)Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
Psalms 17:4(v22)As for the deeds of men, by the word of your lips, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent.
Psalms 22:4(v24)Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.
Psalms 22:15-17(v21)My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death. For dogs…
Psalms 30:3(v22)Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Psalms 30:9-12(v24)“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth? Hear, Yahweh, and…
Psalms 32:3-4(v21)When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was…
Psalms 38:1-8(v19)Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard…
Psalms 39:11(v21)When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.”
Psalms 40:2(v24)He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
Psalms 71:3(v24)Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Psalms 86:5(v24)For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
Psalms 86:13(v24)For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
Psalms 86:15(v24)But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Psalms 88:3-5(v22)For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no…
Psalms 102:3-5(v21)For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my…
Psalms 119:67(v19)Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word.
Isaiah 27:9(v19)Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of…
Isaiah 37:12-13(v19)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in…
Isaiah 38:10(v22)I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
Isaiah 38:17-19(v24)Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my…
Jeremiah 3:19(v20)“But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’…
Jeremiah 31:20(v24)Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart…
Amos 5:11(v20)Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in…
Acts 12:23(v22)Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.
Romans 3:24-26(v24)being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith…
1 Corinthians 10:10(v22)Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.
1 Corinthians 11:30-32(v23)For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. But when we…
Revelation 3:19(v19)As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
Revelation 9:11(v22)They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.
Hosea 14:2(v24)Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
Acts 8:30(v23)Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Romans 11:13(v23)For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;
99 distinct cross-references across this passage (100 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22, 23, 24That is, his painful and miserable life.
That is, his painful and miserable life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv19–24Job 33:19 He is chastened also with pain upon…
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.
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And the multitude of his bones with strong pain] Some read it, Et lis est ossium eius vehemens, his bones rattle in his skin, as we say. Confer Psa 38:4. He is all over so ill at ease, that live he would not, die he cannot; his pain piercing even to his very bones, and drinking up his marrow, as Job’s did; all this discourse being exemplified in him, save that we find not that he kept his bed.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv19–24With pain, or grief; with some painful and dangerous…
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 Job’s 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 Job’s case, Job 30:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v19God has spoken once to sinners by their own…
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 (Job 33:19, etc.) when God sends it with commission. Do this, and doeth it. 1. The sick man is full of pain all over him (Job 33:19): 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 (Job 33:20): 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, Pro 23:3. 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, Psa 107:18. 3. He has become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, Job 33:21. 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.
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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 (Job 33:22): 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, Psa 116:3. 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, Job 33:23. 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, Job 33:24. 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, heurēka, heurēka, - "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, Job 33:25. 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 38:17. 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, Job 33:26. (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 33:10, 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 5:11. 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, Psa 24:5. 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 (Act 13:10), and therefore the ways of sin are called crooked ways, Psa 125:5. 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 6:21, 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, Jo1 1:9. 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 8:6. 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?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv19–24He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,....…
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, Rev 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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv19, 22, 23, 24Pain - The second way whereby God instructs men…
Pain - The second way whereby God instructs men and excites them to repentance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv19–24Verse 19. He is chastened also with pain upon…
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.
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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, ורוב עצמיו אתן 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v23Job 33:23-24. If there be a messenger with him…
Job 33:23-24. If there be a messenger with him — If there be a prophet or teacher with the afflicted man; an interpreter — One whose office and work it is to declare to him the mind and will of God, and his design in this dispensation of his providence, and what is the sick man’s duty under it. One of a thousand — A person rightly qualified for this great and difficult work, such as there are but very few; to show unto man his uprightness — Not man’s, but God’s uprightness; namely, his justice in inflicting these sufferings, and the sufferer’s desert of condemnation and wrath; God’s way of pardoning and justifying the penitent; his sincerity and faithfulness to his promises, and the necessity of acquiescing in his will without murmuring or repining, and of walking in the way of faith and holiness. Then he is gracious unto him — In that case, or upon the sick man’s turning to God in true repentance and faith, God graciously pardons his sins, and saves him, probably from his dangerous disease and from death, but, if not, at least from going down to the pit of hell, and from everlasting destruction. And saith — To the messenger; deliver him — Namely, ministerially and declaratively; assure him that I have pardoned, and will heal him; I have found a ransom — Although I might justly destroy him, yet I will spare him, for I have found out a way of ransoming sinners from death, which is by the death of my Son, the Redeemer of the world, and with respect to which I will pardon them that repent and sue for mercy. Observe how God glories in the invention! I have found, I have found a ransom; a ransom for poor undone sinners! I, even I, am he that hath done it. “Some interpret this Messenger or Angel of Christ himself, the Interpreter of God’s will to man, the chief among ten thousand of his saints and servants. But as, in general, he comes to men by his messengers or ministers, and as their instructions and encouragements are deduced from his mediation, and are made effectual by his gracious presence, it does not much signify whether we interpret the passage of the messengers of God pointing to the Saviour, or the Saviour revealing himself by their ministry. It is equally immaterial whether the words, Deliver him from going down to the pit, be considered as the language of Christ’s intercession, pleading the ransom of his blood in behalf of the sinner, or the words of the Father, accepting of his plea and giving command to save the sinner, satisfied with that appointed ransom: for it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Elihu had reference to it; though he might also intend the sacrifices which prefigured the great atonement.” — Scott. Add to this, that it may serve as no small confirmation of our faith in the doctrines of the gospel, that we find the substance, or great outlines of them thus pointed out to men, by divine revelation, in the earliest ages of the world. Some thousands of years have certainly passed since the book of Job was written, and yet we here find the same great truths declared in relation to man and his salvation through Christ, which are so fully revealed in the New Testament.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv19–24He is chastened also with pain - As another…
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv19, 21, 22, 23Also. This is the second method of instruction. Eliu…
Also. This is the second method of instruction. Eliu pretends that Job had thus been visited by God, and had not understood his meaning.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv19–24When man does not heed warnings of the night,…
When man does not heed warnings of the night, he is chastened, &c. The new thought suggested by Elihu is that affliction is disciplinary (Job 36:10); for the good of the godly.
multitude--so the Margin, Hebrew (Keri). Better with the text (Chetib), "And with the perpetual (strong) contest of his bones"; the never-resting fever in his bones (Psa 38:3) [UMBREIT].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv19–24b. THE SECOND MODE OF DIVINE VISITATION IS BY…
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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv19, 20, 22, 23, 2419. multitude of his Bones with strong pain] Rather,…
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.
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:
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(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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv19, 23, 24(19) He is chastened.—This is the second manner in…
(19) He is chastened.—This is the second manner in which God speaks—first 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 bones—e.g., rheumatism and gout.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv19–24He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.…
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed. God also speaks to men, secretly and silently, in another way, viz. through chastisements. He afflicts the strong man with a grievous sickness, causes him to take to his bed, racks him with pain there, and wrings the multitude of his bones with strong pain. But here again his purpose is kind and loving.
Vers. 19-22. Chastisement.
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Elihu now approaches his own special and new contribution to the great controversy. God addresses man in various ways. First he speaks with the still, small inner voice of conscience. But when the repetition of this voice is unheeded he proceeds by another method, and calls attention through the rousing voice of chastisement.
I SUFFERING IS CHASTISEMENT. As he elaborates his thought we see what Elihu is making clear. Suffering is not the vindictive punishment of sin; nor is it the work of a malignant or even of an indifferent being. It is sent by God for the wholesome discipline of his children. No doubt this discipline is often rendered necessary by sin, and when it is so chastisement is virtually punishment; but even then it is punishment with a merciful end. It is the rod that corrects, not the gallows that ends a career without hope. It looks forward to better things; it is directly designed to help and bless and save. But often it is not connected with sin. It is the wholesome discipline that seasons the soldier with hardship.
II CHASTISEMENT IS A DIVINE MESSENGER. The poor sufferer, "chastened also with pain upon his bed," is not deserted by God. He is tempted to look upon his trouble as a proof that God has left him, if it is not a sign that God has become his Enemy. But both ideas are wrong. God is neither inimical nor negligent. The very suffering is a sign of God"s present care. It is a process by means of which he is bettering his child. Therefore it is a message of mercy. Yet it is not always possible to discern the mercy in the message. Still, the message is not fruitless. Perhaps there was a danger of too much self-confidence; pride was creeping in; success was lifting up the soul to dangerous heights. Then the chastisement came to cast down and humble. At first this seemed harsh and hurtful. But on reflection it is seen to be the very thing needful for saving the better life and refining it.
III THE SUFFERING OF CHASTISEMENT SHOULD DRIVE US TO GOD. Perhaps we would not heed him in the cheerful hours. Now we need him. The voices that were drowned in the noisy scenes of pleasure may steal into our ears in the lonely watches of pain. Thus we learn to trust in the darkness. "Lord, in thy sky of blue No stain of cloud appears Gone all my faithless fears, Only thy love seems true. Help me to thank thee, then, I pray; Walk in the light and cheerfully obey. "Lord, when I look on high, Clouds only meet my sight; Fears deepen with the night: But yet it is thy sky. Help me to trust thee, then, I pray; Wait in the dark and tearfully obey. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv19, 23He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.
Job_33:19-30
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv19, 21, 23General Information:
General Information:
Elihu continues speaking to Job.
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Man is punished also
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God also punishes a person" (See: Active or Passive)
with pain on his bed
This means that the person is experiencing such pain that he must lie in bed. AT: "with pain so that he must lie in bed" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
so that his life abhors food, and his soul abhors delicacies
These two phrases mean basically the same thing, that the person is in so much pain that he cannot even eat. The person is represented by his "life" and his "soul." AT: "the result is that he does not desire any food, not even very special food" (See: Parallelism and Synecdoche)
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20, 22, 23, 24 That is, his painful and miserable life.
That is, his painful and miserable life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19–24 Job 33:19 He is chastened also with pain upon…
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.
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And the multitude of his bones with strong pain] Some read it, Et lis est ossium eius vehemens, his bones rattle in his skin, as we say. Confer Psa 38:4. He is all over so ill at ease, that live he would not, die he cannot; his pain piercing even to his very bones, and drinking up his marrow, as Job’s did; all this discourse being exemplified in him, save that we find not that he kept his bed.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv19–24 With pain, or grief; with some painful and dangerous…
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 Job’s 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 Job’s case, Job 30:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v19 God has spoken once to sinners by their own…
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 (Job 33:19, etc.) when God sends it with commission. Do this, and doeth it. 1. The sick man is full of pain all over him (Job 33:19): 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 (Job 33:20): 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, Pro 23:3. 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, Psa 107:18. 3. He has become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, Job 33:21. 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.
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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 (Job 33:22): 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, Psa 116:3. 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, Job 33:23. 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, Job 33:24. 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, heurēka, heurēka, - "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, Job 33:25. 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 38:17. 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, Job 33:26. (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 33:10, 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 5:11. 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, Psa 24:5. 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 (Act 13:10), and therefore the ways of sin are called crooked ways, Psa 125:5. 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 6:21, 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, Jo1 1:9. 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 8:6. 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?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–24 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,....…
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, Rev 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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv19, 22, 23, 24 Pain - The second way whereby God instructs men…
Pain - The second way whereby God instructs men and excites them to repentance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv19–24 Verse 19. He is chastened also with pain upon…
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.
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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, ורוב עצמיו אתן 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v23 Job 33:23-24. If there be a messenger with him…
Job 33:23-24. If there be a messenger with him — If there be a prophet or teacher with the afflicted man; an interpreter — One whose office and work it is to declare to him the mind and will of God, and his design in this dispensation of his providence, and what is the sick man’s duty under it. One of a thousand — A person rightly qualified for this great and difficult work, such as there are but very few; to show unto man his uprightness — Not man’s, but God’s uprightness; namely, his justice in inflicting these sufferings, and the sufferer’s desert of condemnation and wrath; God’s way of pardoning and justifying the penitent; his sincerity and faithfulness to his promises, and the necessity of acquiescing in his will without murmuring or repining, and of walking in the way of faith and holiness. Then he is gracious unto him — In that case, or upon the sick man’s turning to God in true repentance and faith, God graciously pardons his sins, and saves him, probably from his dangerous disease and from death, but, if not, at least from going down to the pit of hell, and from everlasting destruction. And saith — To the messenger; deliver him — Namely, ministerially and declaratively; assure him that I have pardoned, and will heal him; I have found a ransom — Although I might justly destroy him, yet I will spare him, for I have found out a way of ransoming sinners from death, which is by the death of my Son, the Redeemer of the world, and with respect to which I will pardon them that repent and sue for mercy. Observe how God glories in the invention! I have found, I have found a ransom; a ransom for poor undone sinners! I, even I, am he that hath done it. “Some interpret this Messenger or Angel of Christ himself, the Interpreter of God’s will to man, the chief among ten thousand of his saints and servants. But as, in general, he comes to men by his messengers or ministers, and as their instructions and encouragements are deduced from his mediation, and are made effectual by his gracious presence, it does not much signify whether we interpret the passage of the messengers of God pointing to the Saviour, or the Saviour revealing himself by their ministry. It is equally immaterial whether the words, Deliver him from going down to the pit, be considered as the language of Christ’s intercession, pleading the ransom of his blood in behalf of the sinner, or the words of the Father, accepting of his plea and giving command to save the sinner, satisfied with that appointed ransom: for it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Elihu had reference to it; though he might also intend the sacrifices which prefigured the great atonement.” — Scott. Add to this, that it may serve as no small confirmation of our faith in the doctrines of the gospel, that we find the substance, or great outlines of them thus pointed out to men, by divine revelation, in the earliest ages of the world. Some thousands of years have certainly passed since the book of Job was written, and yet we here find the same great truths declared in relation to man and his salvation through Christ, which are so fully revealed in the New Testament.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv19–24 He is chastened also with pain - As another…
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv19, 21, 22, 23 Also. This is the second method of instruction. Eliu…
Also. This is the second method of instruction. Eliu pretends that Job had thus been visited by God, and had not understood his meaning.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv19–24 When man does not heed warnings of the night,…
When man does not heed warnings of the night, he is chastened, &c. The new thought suggested by Elihu is that affliction is disciplinary (Job 36:10); for the good of the godly.
multitude--so the Margin, Hebrew (Keri). Better with the text (Chetib), "And with the perpetual (strong) contest of his bones"; the never-resting fever in his bones (Psa 38:3) [UMBREIT].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv19–24 b. THE SECOND MODE OF DIVINE VISITATION IS BY…
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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 22, 23, 24 19. multitude of his Bones with strong pain] Rather,…
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.
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:
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(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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 23, 24 (19) He is chastened.—This is the second manner in…
(19) He is chastened.—This is the second manner in which God speaks—first 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 bones—e.g., rheumatism and gout.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv19–24 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.…
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed. God also speaks to men, secretly and silently, in another way, viz. through chastisements. He afflicts the strong man with a grievous sickness, causes him to take to his bed, racks him with pain there, and wrings the multitude of his bones with strong pain. But here again his purpose is kind and loving.
Vers. 19-22. Chastisement.
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Elihu now approaches his own special and new contribution to the great controversy. God addresses man in various ways. First he speaks with the still, small inner voice of conscience. But when the repetition of this voice is unheeded he proceeds by another method, and calls attention through the rousing voice of chastisement.
I SUFFERING IS CHASTISEMENT. As he elaborates his thought we see what Elihu is making clear. Suffering is not the vindictive punishment of sin; nor is it the work of a malignant or even of an indifferent being. It is sent by God for the wholesome discipline of his children. No doubt this discipline is often rendered necessary by sin, and when it is so chastisement is virtually punishment; but even then it is punishment with a merciful end. It is the rod that corrects, not the gallows that ends a career without hope. It looks forward to better things; it is directly designed to help and bless and save. But often it is not connected with sin. It is the wholesome discipline that seasons the soldier with hardship.
II CHASTISEMENT IS A DIVINE MESSENGER. The poor sufferer, "chastened also with pain upon his bed," is not deserted by God. He is tempted to look upon his trouble as a proof that God has left him, if it is not a sign that God has become his Enemy. But both ideas are wrong. God is neither inimical nor negligent. The very suffering is a sign of God"s present care. It is a process by means of which he is bettering his child. Therefore it is a message of mercy. Yet it is not always possible to discern the mercy in the message. Still, the message is not fruitless. Perhaps there was a danger of too much self-confidence; pride was creeping in; success was lifting up the soul to dangerous heights. Then the chastisement came to cast down and humble. At first this seemed harsh and hurtful. But on reflection it is seen to be the very thing needful for saving the better life and refining it.
III THE SUFFERING OF CHASTISEMENT SHOULD DRIVE US TO GOD. Perhaps we would not heed him in the cheerful hours. Now we need him. The voices that were drowned in the noisy scenes of pleasure may steal into our ears in the lonely watches of pain. Thus we learn to trust in the darkness. "Lord, in thy sky of blue No stain of cloud appears Gone all my faithless fears, Only thy love seems true. Help me to thank thee, then, I pray; Walk in the light and cheerfully obey. "Lord, when I look on high, Clouds only meet my sight; Fears deepen with the night: But yet it is thy sky. Help me to trust thee, then, I pray; Wait in the dark and tearfully obey. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv19, 23 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.
Job_33:19-30
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv19, 21, 23 General Information:
General Information:
Elihu continues speaking to Job.
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Man is punished also
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God also punishes a person" (See: Active or Passive)
with pain on his bed
This means that the person is experiencing such pain that he must lie in bed. AT: "with pain so that he must lie in bed" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
so that his life abhors food, and his soul abhors delicacies
These two phrases mean basically the same thing, that the person is in so much pain that he cannot even eat. The person is represented by his "life" and his "soul." AT: "the result is that he does not desire any food, not even very special food" (See: Parallelism and Synecdoche)
abhors delicacies
"hates even very special food"
translationWords
soul
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv22–24 33:22 angels of death wait for them: Cp. Exod…
33:22 angels of death wait for them: Cp. Exod 12:23; 2 Sam 24:16; 1 Cor 10:10.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.