^33:12b I will answer you, because God is greater than man.
^33:13 You contend against him because he has not answered you in all your words.
^33:14 God speaks once, and a second time he does not repeat the same thing,
^33:15 through a dream in a vision by night. When sleep rushes upon men and they sleep on a bed,
^33:16 then he opens the ears of men and, instructing them, teaches discipline,
^33:17 so that he may turn man away from the things that he does and free him from pride,
^33:18 rescuing his soul from corruption and his life, so that it may not pass into the sword.
^33:19 He also reproves through pain on the bed, and he makes all his bones wither.
^33:20 Bread becomes abominable to him in his life, and food formerly desirable to his soul.
^33:21 His flesh will waste away, and the bones that had been covered will be laid bare.
^33:22 His soul will draw near to corruption, and his life to things that bring death.
^33:23 If there should be for him an angel speaking, one from among thousands, to announce the uprightness of man,
^33:24 he will have mercy on him and say: Free him, so that he may not descend into corruption; I have found that wherein I may be propitious to him.
^33:25 His flesh has been consumed by punishments; let him return to the days of his youth.
^33:26 He will beseech God, and he will be favorable to him, and he will see his face in jubilation, and he will render to man his justice.
^33:27 He will look upon men and say: I have sinned and truly offended, and I have not received as I was worthy.
^33:28 For he has delivered his soul, lest it go into destruction, but that, living, it might see the light.
^33:29 Behold, God works all these things three times for each one,
^33:30 so that he may call back their souls from corruption and enlighten them in the light of the living.
^33:31 Pay attention, Job, and hear me, and be silent while I speak.
^33:32 But if you have anything to say, answer me, speak; for I want you to appear just.
^33:33 But if you do not have anything, hear me, be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.

437. I will answer you, because God is greater than man, etc. Elihu had proposed above the matters about which he intended to dispute against Job. But because Job, before he said the preceding words, had set forth above in 13:3: I desire to dispute with God, and since it seems unfitting to call back one who longs to dispute with a superior to dispute with an inferior, before Elihu begins the disputation with Job concerning the foregoing matters, he rebukes him for this very thing, that he desired to dispute with God. And first indeed because this very thing seems to be great presumption, that someone should challenge one greater than himself to a dispute; whence he says: I will answer you, that is, your desire by which you desire to dispute with God, that God is greater than man, whence it is presumptuous that man should desire to dispute with God. And in this he would indeed justly reprove Job if he had wished to dispute with God in order to contradict him as though an equal; but Job wished to dispute with God as one learning, like a disciple with a master, whence above in 23:4 he said: I will fill my mouth with rebukes, that I may know the words that he may answer me. Yet Elihu interpreted this as though Job had said it contentiously against God, complaining that he did not answer him, whence he adds: You contend against him because he has not answered you in all your words. He wished to gather this from the aforesaid words of Job, and from the fact that above in 19:7 he had also said: Behold, I will cry out, suffering violence, and no one will hear; I will cry aloud, and there is no one who may judge. But these words, and any similar ones said above, were not said by way of contention, but because he desired to know the reasons of divine wisdom.

438. But to repel the aforesaid words of Job, which Elihu interpreted as though they had been said contentiously, Elihu consequently shows that it is not necessary for God to answer man concerning individual words, but that he speaks sufficiently to each one for his instruction; whence he adds: God speaks once, namely, sufficiently to man for his instruction; hence afterward it is not necessary that he answer the individual questions of man, whence he adds: and a second time he does not repeat the same thing, because it would be superfluous to repeat what has been done sufficiently. But how God speaks to man he shows, adding: through a dream in a vision by night. There can also be another sense, so that what he said, God speaks once, namely, to man, is referred to the instruction of the mind that takes place through the light of natural reason, according to the Psalm: Many say: Who shows us good things? And, as though answering, he adds: The light of your face, O Lord, has been signed upon us, by which, namely, we can discern good from evil; and because natural reason remains immovably in man, so that it is not necessary to repeat it, he therefore adds: and a second time he does not repeat the same thing. And then he shows another way by which God speaks to man, through imaginative vision in the apparitions of dreams, whence he adds: through a dream in a vision by night; and this can indeed be referred to prophetic revelation, according to Numbers 12:6: If there will be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will speak to him through a dream or in a vision, or it can also be referred to common dreams, which Elihu believed to be divinely procured.

439. He consequently explains the manner and order of dreams,

first indeed touching on the natural cause when he says: When sleep rushes upon men, which indeed happens when the exterior senses are made immobile by vapors ascending to the principle of sensation.

Second, he sets down the disposition on the part of the human will when he adds: and they sleep on a bed, because men especially see ordered and meaningful dreams when they sleep quietly; whence distorted dreams appear to the sick because of restlessness, and therefore it is expressly said in Daniel 2:28: Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are of this kind: you, O king, began to think upon your bed, etc.

Third, he sets down the divine operation concerning the one sleeping, which indeed is considered first with respect to the fact that, when the exterior senses have been rendered immobile by sleep and man is resting on a bed, a certain capacity for perceiving divine instruction is given divinely to man, because his soul is not occupied with exterior things, whence he adds: then he opens the ears of men. And quite fittingly he calls the perceptive power of divine instruction in dreams ears, because he speaks of instruction of this kind as of a certain locution, since it does not take place by an inspection of the things themselves but by certain signs, as speech also does.

But once the capacity for hearing has been given, it follows that he teaches, whence he adds: and, instructing them, teaches discipline; and here discipline is taken for instruction concerning the things that occur to man as to be done or avoided, not for knowledge of speculative sciences, which are not usually revealed in a dream, whence he adds: so that he may turn man away from the things that he does: for frequently in dreams man is reproved concerning sins committed; and because the principle of sins is pride, by which the precepts of God are contemned, he adds: and free him from pride. But through the fact that man is freed from fault, it follows that he escapes punishment,

which he consequently shows with respect to a twofold punishment:

first indeed with respect to the spiritual punishment of the soul, whence he adds: rescuing his soul from corruption, which, namely, comes through the disordering of the powers of the soul;

second, with respect to bodily punishment, whence he adds: and his life, namely, bodily life, so that it may not pass into the sword, namely, as one to be punished for his sin; or both can be referred to bodily death, which sometimes happens through interior corruption, as when someone dies from sickness that God sends because of sin, but sometimes happens from the violence of the sword.

440. Then he adds another mode of divine speaking, namely, that he corrects man through bodily sickness,

in which he first notes sensible pain, whence he says: He also reproves, namely, man concerning past sins, through pain, namely, bodily pain arising from sickness, whence he adds: on the bed, according to the Psalm: upon his bed of sorrow.

Second, he touches on the weakness of the sick when he says: and he makes all his bones wither, that is, he brings to nothing his strength, which consists in the bones.

Third, he sets down the loss of appetite when he adds: Bread becomes abominable to him in his life, that is, while he still lives, namely, because of infirmity, bread, namely, which is common food, and food formerly desirable to his soul, which refers to other foods that are desired in different ways by different people.

Fourth, he sets down leanness when he adds: His flesh will waste away, that is, it will fail, and thus consequently the bones that had been covered, namely, with flesh, will be laid bare, that is, they will be made manifest, covered only by skin.

Fifth, he sets down the danger and fear of death, whence he adds: His soul will draw near to corruption, that is, his life, which is through the soul, whence he adds: and his life to things that bring death, that is, to causes inducing death.

441. Now it should be noted that he proposed these things in order to answer Job’s complaint that God does not answer him in each matter; for by the aforesaid things he wished to prove that God had spoken to him in three ways:

first indeed through natural reason, as to all men,

second, by reproving through dreams, for he had said above: you will terrify me through dreams and shake me with horror through visions,

third, through infirmity, for he had said above in chapter 30:16: Now within myself my soul withers, and so forth. Likewise, it should be considered that Elihu, like the other three, believed that infirmities come upon man because of sin, yet not principally to punish, as the words of those three sounded, but rather to reprove.

442. And because Job seemed not only to have complained that God did not speak to him, but also that he himself could not approach to speak with God and to set his judgment before him, as is clear above in 23:3, he therefore satisfies this question: because although access to God is not manifestly open to man, nevertheless there are angels as mediators between God and men, who set forth man’s justice before God, not as instructing him but as helping men by their desires; and so nothing is lost to man because he himself cannot approach all the way to the throne of God to set forth to him the justice of his cause. Hence, to show this, he adds: If there should be for him, that is, for the afflicted man, an angel speaking, that is, interceding; and lest it be feared that one angel would not suffice to intercede for all, he adds: one from among thousands, according to what was said above in 25:3: Is there any number of his soldiers? to announce the uprightness of man, that is, to set forth before God if there is anything just on the part of man; he will have mercy, namely God, on him, namely, the afflicted man, and say, that is, he will command the angel: Free him, so that, just as he himself is the pleader of man’s justice before God, so also he himself may be the executor of divine mercy among men.

And from what he is to be freed he adds: so that he may not descend into corruption, that is, into death; and to show that this liberation is pleasing to God, he adds as spoken in the person of God: I have found that wherein I may be propitious to him, that is, something of uprightness appears in man, from which I can have mercy on him, and this I was seeking. And because Job had said above in 7:5, as though he could not be restored: My flesh is clothed with rottenness, to exclude this he adds: His flesh has been consumed by punishments, as though saying: this does not prejudice my power; whence he adds: let him return to the days of his youth, that is, let him recover vigor as in youth.

443. Thus, therefore, once the words of God liberating have been set down, Elihu, using his own words, describes the mode of human liberation, saying: He will beseech God, as though saying: it does not suffice that the angel speak for him, but in order that he be freed he must also pray for himself. Or it can be connected otherwise: because above he had shown that man cannot complain that he is unable to set his judgment before God, since an angel effectively sets it forth for him, now he shows that he himself can also set it forth for himself by praying. To show that this also is effective like the first, he adds: and he will be favorable to him, namely, God to man, according to Joel 2:13: he is kind and merciful, and favorable over malice. And from this there follows in man confidence in thinking of God with a certain spiritual gladness, whence he adds: and he will see, namely, man, his face, that is, he will consider his goodness, imperfectly indeed in the present life, but perfectly in the future, in jubilation, that is, in a certain ineffable joy; and thus he will render, namely God, to man his justice, that is, he will reward him according to his merits, once the impediment of sin has been removed.

But this cannot be unless man humbly recognizes and confesses his sin, whence he adds: He will look upon men, as though freely offering himself for the confession of sin, whence he adds: and say: I have sinned. And lest he be believed to say this out of humility only, he adds: and truly offended, which he brings in against Job, because above in 17:2 he had said: I have not sinned, and my eye remains in bitterness. And in his confession he will not murmur over the gravity of the punishment, whence he adds: and I have not received as I was worthy, as though saying: I have merited a graver punishment; and he seems to say this against what Job had said above in 6:2: If only my sins, by which I have merited wrath, were weighed, and so forth. And he shows the fruit of humility, adding: For he has delivered his soul, namely, by confessing sin, lest it go into destruction, that is, into death, whether bodily or spiritual, and so that he might further attain good things, whence he adds: but that, living, it might see the light, namely, either bodily light or the spiritual light of wisdom.

444. And because God does not at once condemn man finally, but warns him many times, he therefore adds: Behold, all these things, namely, those that pertain to instruction through dreams and reproof through pains and healing, God works three times, that is, many times, for as long as he sees it to be expedient; but he uses the number three so as to agree with human custom, by which men are usually warned or summoned three times. And he does this not only to one, but to all who are in need, whence he adds: for each one, namely, those whom he sees should be instructed and reproved. And he assigns the usefulness, adding: so that he may call back their souls from corruption, which pertains to liberation from evil, and enlighten them in the light of the living, which pertains to the attainment of good things; and both can be explained bodily or spiritually. But what is said here about three times should be referred to the two latter modes of speaking: for concerning the first it was said that a second time he does not repeat the same thing. But he introduces this as though to show the reason why sinners are sometimes sustained in prosperity and are not condemned at once.

445. And because it seemed to him that he had spoken effectively, he induces Job to listen silently to the things that remain, whence he adds: Pay attention, Job, namely, with the heart, and hear me, namely, with the ears, and be silent while I speak, namely, lest you impede me. And lest he seem to take away from him the opportunity of answering, he adds: But if you have anything to say, answer me; and as though desiring his answer he adds: speak; and giving the cause of his desire, he says: for I want you to appear just, which he says to show that he did not intend his confusion. And because he did not believe him to be just, he adds: But if you do not have anything, namely, anything that you might say for your justice, hear me, be silent, and I will teach you wisdom, which, namely, you do not know.