What is the meaning of Job 33:21? His flesh wastes away from sight • Elihu is describing a man whose physical condition has deteriorated so drastically that the change is obvious to everyone. The body that once looked strong now “wastes away” until it is painful to watch (Job 33:21a). • Scripture often links visible physical decline with deep spiritual need. David cries, “My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away” (Psalm 31:10). The psalmist also confesses, “My flesh and my heart fail” (Psalm 73:26), reminding us that God sometimes allows weakness to expose our dependence on Him. • This wasting is not merely the normal course of aging; Elihu pictures severe affliction—like Job’s boils (Job 2:7) or the wasting sickness mentioned in Psalm 102:3-5—that strips away health, vanity, and self-reliance. • Key takeaway: physical frailty can serve as God’s mercy signal, urging repentance and renewed trust (Proverbs 5:11-12; Revelation 3:19). and his hidden bones protrude • Bones normally “hidden” beneath muscle and flesh now jut out, a graphic sign of extreme emaciation (Job 19:20 offers Job’s own testimony: “I am nothing but skin and bones”). • This image conveys helplessness, echoing Lamentations 4:8—“Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.” • Yet Elihu’s goal is not mere pity; he is highlighting how God sometimes brings a person to the edge of death “to turn his soul back from the Pit” (Job 33:30). The protruding bones are a wake-up call, much like Paul’s reminder that “though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). • God can use even wasting sickness to strip away every earthly prop, so that the sufferer hears His redemptive voice (Psalm 119:67, 71). summary Job 33:21 paints a stark portrait of a man brought to the brink of death: first his flesh visibly melts away, then even his concealed bones push through the skin. Elihu uses this vivid reality to show how God sometimes employs severe physical affliction to arrest a person’s attention, humble pride, and invite heartfelt repentance. The verse is therefore both literal—describing real, agonizing sickness—and instructive, reminding believers that when the body fails, God is often at work to rescue the soul and restore true life in Him. |
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