Have you heard God’s warning?
1 ① So now, O Job, hear my discourse,
listen to everything I say.
2My words are on the tip of my tongue,
3words from an upright heart,
words full of knowledge and sincerity.
4The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.
5Answer me if you can;
draw up your arguments and take your stand.
6Like yourself, I too have been taken
by God from the same clay.
7Thus no fear of me need alarm you,
nor should my presence lie heavy on you.
8But I heard what you said,
none of your words escaped my hearing:
9“I am clean and without sin;
I am innocent, guiltless.
10Yet God has found fault with me
and considers me his enemy;
11he shackles my feet,
keeps watch of all my paths.”
12I tell you, you are wrong in this,
for greater than man is God.
13Why then do you complain
that he will answer none of your words?
14See God gives a warning
but does not repeat it a second time.
15In a dream, in a night vision,
when deep sleep falls on people,
while they slumber in their beds,
16it is then he opens their ears
and gives warning by terrifying them.
17So he turns man from wrongdoing
and keeps him away from pride,
18God preserves his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
19Man is also chastened on his bed by pain
and constant distress upon his frame,
20so that he finds food repulsive,
even the choicest meal loathsome.
21His flesh wastes away to naught;
his bones, once unseen, now protrude.
22His soul draws near to the pit,
and his life to the place of death.
23Yet if there is an angel by his side –
a mediator, one in a thousand –
to show him what is right for man,
to give him justice once again,
24God will have mercy on him and say,
“Deliver him from going down to the pit;
I have found for him a ransom.”
25Then his flesh will be renewed as a child’s,
restored as in the days of his youth.
26He will pray and find favor with God;
he will see God’s face and rejoice.
27He will witness to men and say,
“I sinned and perverted what was right,
but I was not punished as I deserved.
28He rescued my soul from going down into the pit, and gave me life to enjoy the light.”
29God does all this to man –
twice, even thrice –
30to turn him back from the pit,
to lead him with the light of life.
31Pay attention, Job, listen to me;
be silent, and I will continue to speak.
32But if you have anything to say, say it then;
speak up, for I wish to see you justified.
33If not, then do listen;
be silent as I teach you wisdom.
- Job 33,1 Elihu says to Job: you think you are innocent, but surely you have not paid attention to God's warnings. In spite of the fact that God cannot be reached by humans, he communicates through dreams, inspirations, encounters. God also corrects by way of the advice of other people who are his messengers, called here angels, mediators. We know that angel means messenger. The very one who complains about God fails to see, to listen and to accept the messages God sends through the reprimands and advice given us by others who correct us in a loving way. Elihu shows how trials are a lesson in humility for all (36:1-21).
