Job 33:1-22 ▼

1 “But now, O Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.

2 Behold, I will open my mouth; my address is on the tip of my tongue.

3 My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.

4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

5 Refute me if you can; prepare your case and confront me.

6 I am just like you before God; I was also formed from clay.

7 Surely no fear of me should terrify you; nor will my hand be heavy upon you.

8 Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words:

9 ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.

10 Yet God finds occasions against me; He counts me as His enemy.

11 He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’

12 Behold, you are not right in this matter. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

13 Why do you complain to Him that He answers nothing a man asks?

14 For God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices.

15 In a dream, in a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls upon men as they slumber on their beds,

16 He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings

17 to turn a man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride,

18 to preserve his soul from the Pit and his life from perishing by the sword.

19 A man is also chastened on his bed with pain and constant distress in his bones,

20 so that he detests his bread, and his soul loathes his favorite food.

21 His flesh wastes away from sight, and his hidden bones protrude.

22 He draws near to the Pit, and his life to the messengers of death.