33 “Please listen, Job, to what I have to say. ² I have begun to speak; now let me continue. ³ I will speak the truth with all sincerity. ⁴ For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ⁵ Don’t hesitate to answer me if you can.

⁶ “Look, I am the one you were wishing for, someone to stand between you and God and to be both his representative and yours. ⁷ You need not be frightened of me. I am not some person of renown to make you nervous and afraid. I, too, am made of common clay.

⁸ “You have said it in my hearing, yes, you’ve said it again and again— ⁹ ‘I am pure, I am innocent; I have not sinned.’ ¹⁰ You say God is using a fine-tooth comb to try to find a single fault, and so to count you as his enemy. ¹¹ ‘And he puts my feet in the stocks,’ you say, ‘and watches every move I make.’

¹² “All right, here is my reply: In this very thing, you have sinned by speaking of God that way. For God is greater than man. ¹³ Why should you fight against him just because he does not give account to you of what he does?

¹⁴ “For God speaks again and again, ¹⁵ in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men as they lie on their beds. ¹⁶ He opens their ears in times like that and gives them wisdom and instruction, ^17-18 causing them to change their minds, and keeping them from pride, and warning them of the penalties of sin, and keeping them from falling into some trap.

¹⁹ “Or God sends sickness and pain, even though no bone is broken, ²⁰ so that a man loses all taste and appetite for food and doesn’t care for even the daintiest dessert. ²¹ He becomes thin, mere skin and bones, ²² and draws near to death.

^23-24 “But if a messenger from heaven is there to intercede for him as a friend, to show him what is right, then God pities him and says,^[a] ‘Set him free. Do not make him die, for I have found a substitute.’ ²⁵ Then his body will become as healthy as a child’s, firm and youthful again. ²⁶ And when he prays to God, God will hear and answer and receive him with joy, and return him to his duties. ²⁷ And he will declare to his friends, ‘I sinned, but God let me go. ²⁸ He did not let me die. I will go on living in the realm of light.’

²⁹ “Yes, God often does these things for man— ³⁰ brings back his soul from the pit, so that he may live in the light of the living. ³¹ Mark this well, O Job. Listen to me, and let me say more. ³² But if you have anything to say at this point, go ahead. I want to hear it, for I am anxious to justify you. ³³ But if not, then listen to me. Keep silence and I will teach you wisdom!”