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