| Elihu Speaks
Job 33 Job, listen to me! Pay close attention.
 *2 Everything I will say 3is true and sincere,
 4just as surely as the Spirit of God All-Powerful
 gave me the breath of life.
5Now line up your arguments and prepare to face me.
6We each were made from clay, and God has no favorites,
7so don’t be afraid of me or what I might do.
8I have heard you argue 9that you are innocent,
guilty of nothing.
10You claim that God has made you his enemy,
11that he has bound your feet and blocked your path.
12But, Job, you’re wrong–
God is greater than any human.
13So why do you challenge God to answer you?
14God speaks in different ways,
and we don’t always recognize his voice.
*15Sometimes in the night, he uses terrifying dreams
16to give us warnings.
17God does this to make us turn from sin and pride
18and to protect us from being swept away
to the world of the dead.
19Sometimes we are punished with a serious illness
and aching joints.
20Merely the thought of our favorite food
makes our stomachs sick,
21and we become so skinny
that our bones stick out.
22We feel death and the grave taking us in their grip.
23One of a thousand angels then comes to our rescue
by saying we are innocent.
24The angel shows kindness, commanding death to release us,
because the price was paid.
25Our health is restored, we feel young again,
26and we ask God to accept us.
 Then we joyfully worship God,
and we are rewarded because we are innocent.
27When that happens, we tell everyone,
“I sinned and did wrong, but God forgave me
28and rescued me from death! Now I will see the light.”
29God gives each of us chance after chance
30to be saved from death and brought into the light
that gives life.
31So, Job, pay attention and don’t interrupt,
32though I would gladly listen
to anything you say that proves you are right.
33Otherwise, listen in silence to my wisdom. |
positively second 