Job 33

33 ¹ But now, Job, hear my words; listen to everything I say. ² Look, I have opened my mouth; my tongue forms words on my palate. ³ My words come from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what they know. ⁴ The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ⁵ Answer me, if you can; set your case in order before me, and take your stand. ⁶ Look, I am just like you before God; I too was pinched off from clay. ⁷ No dread of me should terrify you, and no pressure from me should weigh you down.

⁸ Surely you have said in my hearing — I heard the very sound of your words — ⁹ 'I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no guilt in me.' ¹⁰ 'Yet he finds fault with me; he counts me as his enemy. ¹¹ He puts my feet in the stocks; he watches all my paths.'

¹² But in this you are not right, I answer you, for God is greater than any mortal. ¹³ Why do you contend against him, that he answers none of a person's words? ¹⁴ For God speaks in one way, and then another, though no one perceives it. ¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber on their beds, ¹⁶ then he opens their ears and impresses his warnings upon them, ¹⁷ to turn a person from wrongdoing and to keep a man from pride, ¹⁸ he holds back their soul from the pit, their life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹ A person is also rebuked with pain on his bed, with constant aching in his bones, ²⁰ so that his life loathes bread, and his soul the choicest food. ²¹ His flesh wastes away, and his bones, once hidden, stick out. ²² His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death.

²³ If there is a messenger for him, a mediator — one out of a thousand — to declare to a person what is right for him, ²⁴ and is gracious to him and says, 'Spare him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom,' ^a a v24 The ransom that delivers a soul from the pit points beyond Elihu's words to the ransom our Father would one day provide in Jesus, who gave his life as a ransom for many. ²⁵ then his flesh grows fresher than a child's; he returns to the days of his youth. ²⁶ He prays to God, and he is accepted by him; he sees his face with shouts of joy, and God restores his righteousness to that person. ²⁷ He sings out before others and says, 'I sinned and twisted what was right, yet it was not repaid to me. ²⁸ He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will see the light.'

²⁹ Look, God does all these things again and again with a person, ³⁰ to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lit with the light of the living.

³¹ Pay attention, Job; listen to me. Be silent, and I will speak. ³² If you have anything to say, answer me; speak, for I would gladly see you justified. ³³ If not, then listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.