The Meaning of Job 33:19 Explained

Job 33:19

KJV: He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:

YLT: And he hath been reproved With pain on his bed, And the strife of his bones is enduring.

Darby: He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and with constant strife in his bones;

ASV: He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, And with continual strife in his bones;

KJV Reverse Interlinear

He is chastened  also with pain  upon his bed,  and the multitude  of his bones  with strong  [pain]: 

What does Job 33:19 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 33:1-33 - The Interpreter
It is not wonderful that Elihu has been mistaken for the Mediator Himself, so helpfully does he interpose between Job and his Maker. He dwells especially on his own likeness to Job in his manhood, and quotes this as the reason why he could specially help him: I also am formed out of the clay. So also our High Priest is man. Elihu takes up Job's words protesting his innocence, and he insists that Job was not right in those protestations, or in the conclusions that he drew from them.
Then follows one of the grandest passages in the book. Elihu tells how God speaks in nature and through conscience, and is often disregarded; and how then he speaks by revelation, opening the ears of men to withdraw them from their purpose. He shows that God often lays a man upon a bed of pain, that He may speak to his heart. Happy is the afflicted if an interpreter stands beside him to point the path to repentance. Finally, broken and penitent, he turns back to God, and sees His face with joy, and sings before men the story of his restoration. Thus Elihu argues that affliction is often sent as discipline to read to man God's deepest truth. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 33

1  Elihu offers himself instead of God to reason with Job
8  He excuses God from giving man an account of his ways, by his greatness
14  God calls man to repentance by visions, by afflictions, and by his ministry
31  He incites Job to attention

What do the individual words in Job 33:19 mean?

And Man is chastened with pain on his bed - and in many of his bones with enduring [pain]
וְהוּכַ֣ח בְּ֭מַכְאוֹב עַל־ מִשְׁכָּב֑וֹ [וריב] (וְר֖וֹב) עֲצָמָ֣יו אֵתָֽן

וְהוּכַ֣ח  And  Man  is  chastened 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hofal, Conjunctive perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: יָכַח  
Sense: to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right.
בְּ֭מַכְאוֹב  with  pain 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, masculine singular
Root: מַכְאֹב  
Sense: pain, sorrow.
מִשְׁכָּב֑וֹ  his  bed 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: מִשְׁכָּב  
Sense: a lying down, couch, bier, act of lying.
[וריב]  - 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine singular construct
(וְר֖וֹב)  and  in  many  of 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine singular construct
Root: רִיב 
Sense: strife, controversy, dispute.
עֲצָמָ֣יו  his  bones 
Parse: Noun, feminine plural construct, third person masculine singular
Root: עֶצֶם 
Sense: bone, essence, substance.
אֵתָֽן  with  enduring  [pain] 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: אֵיתָן  
Sense: perpetual, constant, perennial, ever-flowing.