Part 573

32:20. I will speak and take breath a little: I will open my lips, and will answer.

32:21. I will not accept the person of man, and I will not level God with man.

I will not level God with man. . .Here Eliu considers that Job hath put himself on a level with God, by the manner he assumed to justify his own life in speaking to God as if he spoke to an equal: Eliu expresses in the following ver. 22 his fear of punishment hereafter for such an attempt.

32:22. For I know not how long I shall continue, and whether after a while my Maker may take me away.

Job Chapter 33

Eliu blames Job for asserting his own innocence.

33:1. Hear therefore, O Job, my speeches, and hearken to all my words.

33:2. Behold now I have opened my mouth, let my tongue speak within my jaws.

33:3. My words are from my upright heart, and my lips shall speak a pure sentence.

33:4. The spirit of God made me, and the breath of the Almighty gave me life.

33:5. If thou canst, answer me, and stand up against my face.

33:6. Behold God hath made me as well as thee, and of the same clay I also was formed.

33:7. But yet let not my wonder terrify thee, and let not my eloquence be burdensome to thee.

33:8. Now thou hast said in my hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words:

33:9. I am clean, and without sin: I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me.

33:10. Because he hath found complaints against me, therefore he hath counted me for his enemy.

33:11. He hath put my feet in the stocks, he hath observed all my paths.

33:12. Now this is the thing in which thou art not justified: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.

33:13. Dost thou strive against him, because he hath not answered thee to all words?

33:14. God speaketh once, and repeateth not the selfsame thing the second time.

33:15. By a dream in a vision by night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, and they are sleeping in their beds:

33:16. Then he openeth the ears of men, and teaching instructeth them in what they are to learn.

33:17. That he may withdraw a man from the things he is doing, and may deliver him from pride.

33:18. Rescuing his soul from corruption: and his life from passing to the sword.

33:19. He rebuketh also by sorrow in the bed, and he maketh all his bones to wither.

33:20. Bread becometh abominable to him in his life, and to his soul the meat which before he desired.

33:21. His flesh shall be consumed away, and his bones that were covered shall be made bare.

33:22. His soul hath drawn near to corruption, and his life to the destroyers.