Teks -- Job 33:14 (NET)

Elihu Disagrees With Job’s View of God

33:14 “For God speaks, the first time in one way, the second time in another, though a person does not perceive it.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Job 33:14 - Yet

Although he doth not give men an account of his matters, yet he doth that which is sufficient for them.

Wesley: Job 33:14 - Twice

When once speaking doth not awaken men, God is graciously pleased to give them another admonition: though he will not gratify men's curiosity in enquiring into his hidden judgments, yet he will acquaint them with their duty. God speaks to us by conscience, by providence, and by ministers, of all which Elihu here treats at large, to shew Job, that God was now telling him his mind, and endeavouring to do him good. He shews first, how God admonishes men by their own consciences.

JFB: Job 33:14 - Translate, "Yet, man regardeth it not"; or rather, as UMBREIT, "Yea, twice (He repeats the warning)

If man gives no heed" to the first warning. Elihu implies that God's reason for sending affliction is because, when God has communicated His will in various ways, man in prosperity has not heeded it; God therefore must try what affliction will effect (Joh 15:2; Psa 62:11; Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13).

Clarke: Job 33:14 - For God speaketh once

For God speaketh once - Though he will not be summoned to the bar of his creatures, nor condescend to detail the reasons of his conduct, which they could not comprehend, yet he so acts, in the main, that the operation of his hand and the designs of his counsel may sufficiently appear, provided men had their eyes open upon his ways, and their hearts open to receive his influence. Elihu, having made the general statement that God would not come to the bar of his creatures to give account of his conduct, shows the general means which he uses to bring men to an acquaintance with themselves and with him: he states these in the six following particulars, which may be collected from Job 33:15-24.

TSK: Job 33:14 - God // perceiveth

God : Job 40:5; Psa 62:11

perceiveth : 2Ch 33:10; Pro 1:24, Pro 1:29; Isa 6:9; Mat 13:14; Mar 8:17, Mar 8:18; Luk 24:25; Joh 3:19

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Job 33:14 - For // God speaketh // Once, yea twice // Yet man // Perceiveth it not

For or, nevertheless , as this particle is sometimes used. Although God doth not give men an account of his matters, yet he doth that for them which is much better, and which is sufficient for them.

God speaketh to wit, unto men by way of instruction or admonition, as appears from the following verses.

Once, yea twice again and again, or ofttimes, this number being sometimes put indefinitely, as below, Job 33:29 2Ki 6:10 Psa 62:11 . When one speaking doth not awaken men, God is graciously pleased to give them another admonition. So God, though he will not gratify men’ s curiosity in inquiring into his hidden judgments, yet he will supply their necessity, and acquaint them with their duty and interest so far as is fit, and they are concerned to know.

Yet man which is easily and fitly understood here from the former branch of this verse, as being the person to whom God speaketh, as appears from the next verse. And such supplements are not unusual in the Hebrew language, and especially in these poetical books, where the style is very concise and short, and many things to be understood.

Perceiveth it not through his inadvertency, or negligence, or dulness. Man therefore hath no reason to charge God as if he were deficient in his notices and manifestations of his will, but to accuse himself for not improving revealed things to his own advantage, but desiring rather to pry into God’ s secret counsels, which was Job’ s error.

Haydock: Job 33:14 - Time

Time. One decision ought to suffice; and God had declared Job innocent, chap. i. 8., &c. (Worthington) ---

His decrees are immutable; and yet thou wouldst have him to explain his conduct, as if he could be under a mistake, and correct it. He manifests his will, and it is our business to be attentive. We cannot expect that he should speak twice, though he does so frequently in his great mercy. Hebrew, "God speaketh once, and he regardeth not a second time." (Calmet) ---

Septuagint, "But the second time, ( 15 ) a dream," &c. (Haydock) ---

Eliu specifies three methods by which God declares his will; (ver. 26) 1. By vision; 2. by afflictions; 3. by the voice of angels, or of preachers, ver. 19, 23.

Gill: Job 33:14 - For God speaketh once, yea, twice // yet man perceiveth it not

For God speaketh once, yea, twice,.... Or, "but God speaketh" ⁱ; though he is not bound to give an account of his matters, and the reasons of his proceedings in a way of providence or grace; yet such is his condescension and goodness, that he makes use of various ways and means to make known his mind and will in his dispensations, if men were but attentive to them; he speaks once, in dreams and visions, as in Job 33:15; and twice, or a second time, by chastisements, as in Job 33:18; or he speaks frequently, again and again, see Psa 62:11; gives line upon line, and precept upon precept; if one way is without effect, he will take another; and if one warning and admonition is not sufficient, he will give another; so that though he is a sovereign Being, and not accountable to any, yet he does not act the unkind and unfriendly part Job had suggested:

yet man perceiveth it not: the voice of God speaking in one way or another; hearkens not to the admonition given in a dream or vision, nor hears the chastising rod, and him that has appointed it; he is deaf to all instructions; he understands not the mind and meaning of God in his dispensations; which is not owing to want of means of knowledge, but to the blindness and ignorance of his mind, to dulness of hearing, to negligence and inattention, and to the prevalence of sin and corruption: the words, "yet man", are a supplement to the text, and not in it, and some versions are without it, and understand the whole of God, rendering the words thus, "God speaketh once, and a second time he does not repeat it"; so the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions: or "does not revise it", or "will not see it" ^k; to which agrees the Targum,

"and a second time he needs not to look upon it;''

and which rendering, as it suits with the context, so is more agreeable to the accents; but is differently applied, by some to the sufficiency of the word of God, that God has at once made known all truth, and there is no need to do it a second time; but certain it is, that God did at sundry times, and in divers manners, speak unto the fathers by the prophets; though indeed in these last days he hath spoken at once all his mind and will by his Son, so that no future revelation is to be expected; but though this is true now, it was not in the times of Elihu: by others it is referred to God's dealings with a proud man, that calls him to an account for his actions, to whom he speaks once, and reproves him for his boldness; but a second time he will not look at him, nor bear his pride and insolence: and by others to the unalterable decrees and purposes of God; what he has said or determined in his eternal mind is done at once, and remains invariably fixed; he has no need to look over a second time, or revise his first thoughts and designs, or reconsider them, whether it is proper to make any alteration in them or not, they are at once so wisely formed; and he has all things before him in one view in his all comprehending mind, so that there cannot possibly anything turn up unforeseen by him, to hinder the execution of his purposes, or cause him to make any change in them; no new thoughts, resolutions, or purposes, can arise in his mind, with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. This agrees well with his sovereignty, expressed in Job 33:13, and carries in it a strong reason enforcing what is there said. Though some take the meaning to be this, that God speaks once to a man, and admonishes and reproves him as he used to do, in the way expressed in the following verse; and if he regards it not, he do not speak to him a second time in that way, or no more by words, but now by blows or chastisements.