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33:1  “Please listen, Job, to what I have to say.
33:2  I have begun to speak; now let me continue.
33:3  I will speak the truth with all sincerity.
33:4  For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
33:5  Don’t hesitate to answer me if you can.
33:6  “Look, I am the one you were wishing for, someone to stand between you and God and to be both his representative and yours.
33:7  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.
33:8  “You have said it in my hearing, yes, you’ve said it again and again—
33:9  ‘I am pure, I am innocent; I have not sinned.’
33:10  You say God is using a fine-tooth comb to try to find a single fault, and so to count you as his enemy.
33:11  ‘And he puts my feet in the stocks,’ you say, ‘and watches every move I make.’
33:12  “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.
33:13  Why should you fight against him just because he does not give account to you of what he does?
33:14  “For God speaks again and again,
33:15  in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men as they lie on their beds.
33:16  He opens their ears in times like that and gives them wisdom and instruction,
33:17  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.
33:18  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.
33:19  “Or God sends sickness and pain, even though no bone is broken,
33:20  so that a man loses all taste and appetite for food and doesn’t care for even the daintiest dessert.
33:21  He becomes thin, mere skin and bones,
33:22  and draws near to death.
33:23  “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, ‘Set him free. Do not make him die, for I have found a substitute.’
33:24  “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, ‘Set him free. Do not make him die, for I have found a substitute.’
33:25  Then his body will become as healthy as a child’s, firm and youthful again.
33:26  And when he prays to God, God will hear and answer and receive him with joy, and return him to his duties.
33:27  And he will declare to his friends, ‘I sinned, but God let me go.
33:28  He did not let me die. I will go on living in the realm of light.’
33:29  “Yes, God often does these things for man—
33:30  brings back his soul from the pit, so that he may live in the light of the living.
33:31  Mark this well, O Job. Listen to me, and let me say more.
33:32  But if you have anything to say at this point, go ahead. I want to hear it, for I am anxious to justify you.
33:33  But if not, then listen to me. Keep silence and I will teach you wisdom!”