Job 33  New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁸ “Surely, you have spoken in my hearing,
    and I have heard the sound of your words.
⁹ You say, ‘I am clean, without transgression;
    I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me.^(E)
10 Look, he finds occasions against me;
    he counts me as his enemy;^(F)
11 he puts my feet in the stocks
    and watches all my paths.’^(G)

¹² “But in this you are not right. I will answer you:
    God is greater than any mortal.
¹³ Why do you contend against him,
    saying, ‘He will answer none of my^[b] words’?^(H)
14 For God speaks in one way
    and in two, though people do not perceive it.^(I)
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on mortals,
    while they slumber on their beds,^(J)
16 then he opens their ears
    and terrifies them with warnings,^(K)
17 that he may turn them aside from their deeds
    and keep them from pride,
¹⁸ to spare their souls from the Pit,
    their lives from traversing the River.
¹⁹ They are also chastened with pain upon their beds
    and with continual strife in their bones,^(L)
20 so that their lives loathe bread
    and their appetites dainty food.^(M)
21 Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
    and their bones, once invisible, now stick out.^(N)
22 Their souls draw near the Pit
    and their lives to those who bring death.^(O)
23 Then, if there should be for one of them an angel,
    a mediator, one of a thousand,
    one who declares a person upright,^(P)
24 and he is gracious to that person and says,
    ‘Deliver him from going down into the Pit;
    I have found a ransom;^(Q)
25 let his flesh become fresh with youth;
    let him return to the days of his youthful vigor,’^(R)
26 then he prays to God and is accepted by him;
    he comes into his presence with joy,
and God^[c] repays him for his righteousness.^(S)
27     That person sings to others and says,
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
    and it was not paid back to me.^(T)
28 He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
    and my life shall see the light.’^(U)

²⁹ “God indeed does all these things,
    twice, three times, with mortals,^(V)
30 to bring back their souls from the Pit,
    so that they may see the light of life.^[d](W)
31 Pay heed, Job, listen to me;
    be silent, and I will speak.
³² If you have anything to say, answer me;
    speak, for I desire to justify you.
³³ If not, listen to me;
    be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”^(X)