Commentaire sur Job 33:35

Elihu now addresses Job directly.

The spirit of God made me and I am no stronger than you.

At the end of the first round of speeches (Ch.13:20-22) Job had pleaded that he be given the chance to argue his case with God on equal terms. Elihu now presents himself as the answer to this cry: he will stand-in for God and answer Job’s case. He can do so because he reasons on the basis of the Divine Forms in his soul and not empirical evidence. Consequently, when he speaks, he will be expressing God’s ideas. At the same time, since he is mortal, Job will have no reason to fear him or be in awe of him as he would be in the presence of God, whom 'no man can see and live' (Exodus 33.19).

Behold I am like your mouth to God As your mouth asked to debate with one who would not terrify you, behold I am instead of the Holy One, blessed be He, and on His behalf, to speak His words.

and my coercion Heb. אכפי, my coercion, like (Prov. 16:26), “his mouth forces (אכף).”

As is the custom of lawyers, Elihu opens his own argument by summarizing Job’s case against God.

I am clean Heb. חף, pure and cleansed, like (Bezah 35b), “A nazirite may not cleanse (יחף) his head...” and like (Shabbath 50a),” we may cleanse (חפין) vessels with anything.”

Basing himself on Job’s own words in The Seventh Oration (Ch.13.20-28), he reiterates that Job claims —

1. to be innocent of any sin and that —

2. even had he done something wrong, he should not be held responsible, as he has no freedom of choice, everything being predestined by the Cosmos to whom God has transferred governance.

pretenses Heb. תאונות, pretenses to turn away from the Omnipresent, an expression of (Jud. 14: 4), “that he sought a pretense (תאנה).”

for God exceeds man God does not have to be so exact with man because the Holy One, blessed be He, has more virtues than man.

Implicit in Job’s argument is the idea that God is hostile or at best indifferent to man; that He makes impossible demands of him, punishing him for acts over which he has no choice and denying him guidance or acknowledgment. Elihu rejects this, saying that God repeatedly calls upon man to repent, initially through his conscience by such means as a dream, and if this fails, by means of the warnings implicit in visitations of sickness and pain.

Then He opens the ear of men as He did to Abimelech in the dream of the night.

Malbim gives the following explanation of how these dreams work:
It is the moral force implanted in man's soul that gives him his sense of right and wrong. And it is by virtue of this force that he is roused to be moved by the dream and to examine his deeds. For the moral sensibility embedded in his [divine] soul prophesies to him, through the impact of the dream, that he has exceeded the bounds of morality. Thus it appears as though the dream inscribes these things on his soul. And in order that he believe that the message was from God, the moral force in his soul puts its signature to it, authorizing and confirming the truth of the message, so that he should feel, by the nature of his soul, that he has sinned and been warned from above.
The moral force in his soul first makes man take note of the dream and then confirms its truth. The overall result is that his conscience has been pricked.

and with their chastisement He seals [them] He seals them and binds them with suffering because of their iniquity.

To restrain man in his illness.

a deed that he had intended to do.

and He covers haughtiness from man with his suffering, in order to vanquish him and humble him to repent, so that he withhold his soul from utter death.

All good and evil traits are embedded in the human soul, deep in its recesses, from where the רוח–spirit raises their semblance up to the mind, stimulating the person to do and act according to the particular trait or disposition. And if evil images such as pride, anger, revenge, cruelty etc., rise from the recesses of the soul and the person is drawn to behave according to these evil traits, the dream alerts him to abandon them and to plunge them back into the deepest recesses of his soul. There they remain concealed from him, lest they rise again into his mind. Thus, are man's darkest passions hidden from him...and remain just a disposition (תכונה) and not a trait (מדה) to be acted upon'

haughtiness Heb. וְגֵוָה, like גַאֲוָה.

and his life from perishing by the sword by the weapon and the sword of the Angel of Death; that is to say, He brought suffering upon you for your good.

by the sword Heb. בשלח, a weapon, and so in Ezra (Neh. 4:11): “and one was holding the weapon (השלח).”

And he is chastised an expression of reproof that he repent of his iniquity,

and most of his bones, which are strong, He chastises with pain.

And his living spirit causes him to abhor food The soul and the life of the sick person cause him to abhor all food.

and his soul abhors all tasty food.

His flesh is consumed from sight Heb. יכל בשרו מראי, His flesh is withdrawn from sight, like (Lam 2:11): “My eyes are spent (כלו) with tears”; (Lev. 26:16), “that cause the eyes to pine way (מכלות).

and his bones are dislocated Heb. ושפו. They are dislocated from their place. [The word] שֻׁפּוּ is like (Hullin 42b), “that sprung (שף) from its place.”

to unsightliness They have neither appearance nor form.

one out of a thousand of those who testify to his guilt, and he intercedes with his uprightness.

Elihu details three ways by which a man can be saved from this state.

The first is by virtue of his good deeds.²⁵Underlying the Malbim's interpretation of this verse is the idea that a person's good deeds are his advocates. The way it works is that for each good deed a man does, an angel who watches over him is created. This notion appears in Shemot Rabbah 32:6: 'If a person fulfills one of His commandments, the Holy One Blessed be He gives him an angel to watch over him...two commandments, two angels...many commandments, half His camp...'

He is gracious to him i.e., the Omnipresent.

Redeem him Heb. פדעהו, like פְדָאֵהוּ. The “alef” is replaced by an “ayin.” The context proves it. “I found ransom,” which is redemption.

His flesh is agitated from shaking Heb. רֻטֲפַש means escos in French, shaken.

from shaking His flesh was agitated from the shaking, that it was shaken [by the suffering of] his illness. This word [רֻטֲפַש] has no similarity in Scripture, and according to the context, we found it necessary to explain according to the meaning of the topic. But the one who interprets it as an expression of mire (רפש) and claims that the “teth” is added to it, as in (Gen. 44:16), “How can we clear ourselves (נצטדק)?” is in great error, because the “teth” is added to a word only in the reflexive voice, and to a word in which there is a radical “zaddi,” but nor in other words. for example, צדק and נצטדק, and like (Lev. 13:44) צרוּע, stricken with “zaraath,” and נצטרע, was stricken with “zaraath.” (Prov. 25: 13), “an emissary (ציר) faithful,” and (Josh. 9:4), “and they went and disguised as ambassadors (ויצטירו)”; (Gen. 45:21) “צֵדָה, provision,” and (Josh. 9:12) “הִצְטַיַדְנוּ, we took... for our provision.”

he will be restored with his strength and with healing to the days of his youth.

The second way is by prayer.

He makes a row of men He makes a row of men when he is saved from his illness and confesses [before them] to his Creator.

but I did not profit I had no profit in its matters.

And the third is if he apologies and makes restitution to those he has offended or hurt.

twice or thrice He chastises him for his iniquities with his illness in order not to destroy him, but if he provokes Him further, he should be concerned with Gehinnom or death, as it is written, “Yea for four, I will not return them” (Amos 1:3).

God makes repeated attempts to save the person.

Elihu now urges Job either to reply, if he has anything to say, or if not, to continue listening attentively.