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33:1  But now, Job, listen to my speech. Pay close attention to all my words.
33:2  Listen, because I have opened my mouth. See how my tongue shapes words in my mouth.
33:3  My speech will reveal my upright heart. My lips express my knowledge plainly.
33:4  The spirit of God made me. The breath of the Almighty gave me life.
33:5  Refute me if you are able. Lay out your case before me! Take your stand!
33:6  Look, my mouth belongs to God, just as your mouth does. Like you I was snipped off from a lump of clay.
33:7  Look, you should not be terrified by how awesome I am. Pressure from me should not intimidate you.
33:8  However, you said this in my hearing, and I did hear the sound of these words:
33:9  “I am pure, without any sinful rebellion. I am clean. I have no guilt.
33:10  But look how God finds pretexts to oppose me. He treats me like his enemy.
33:11  He has put my feet in stocks. He patrols all my paths.”
33:12  Job, listen to this! You are not right. I must refute you! Certainly, God is greater than a man.
33:13  Why do you bring charges against him, just because he does not answer all of a man’s questions?
33:14  God does speak, sometimes one way, sometimes another, but people do not pay attention to it.
33:15  In a dream, in a vision in the night, when people are falling into a deep sleep, while they slumber on their beds,
33:16  he whispers a revelation into people’s ears, and he confirms his warnings to them,
33:17  in order to turn a man from his course of action and to suppress a person’s pride.
33:18  He spares his life from the pit. He spares his life from crossing the stream of death.
33:19  Or a person may be disciplined on his bed by pain and by continual agony in his bones,
33:20  so that his life makes food disgusting to him, and he has no appetite for delicious food.
33:21  His flesh wastes away and disappears, and his bones, which were hidden, now stick out.
33:22  Then his soul draws near to destruction, and his life to those who bring death.
33:23  If there is a messenger at his side to mediate, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him,
33:24  if he is gracious to him, if he says, “Spare him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom for him,”
33:25  then his flesh would become more vigorous than it was in his youth. He would return to days of youthful vitality.
33:26  Then he would pray to God, and God would be pleased with him. With a joyful cry he would see God’s face, and God would restore his righteousness to the man.
33:27  Then the man would turn to people and say, “I have sinned, and I have perverted what is right, yet I was not punished as much as I deserved.
33:28  God has redeemed my soul from passing into the pit, and my life will see the light.”
33:29  Look, God does all these things with a man— two times, or even three times—
33:30  to bring back his soul from the pit, so that light shines on him among the living.
33:31  Pay attention, Job. Listen to me. Be silent, so that I may speak.
33:32  If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak up, for I would be delighted to declare you innocent.
33:33  If you have nothing to say, listen to me Be silent, so I may teach you wisdom.