to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
ears
אֹ֣זֶן'O.zen
H241
broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · noun, common feminine singular construct
men
אֲנָשִׁ֑ים'a.na.Shim
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
sealeth
יַחְתֹּֽםyach.Tom
H2856
to close up · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
instruction
וּבְמֹ֖סָרָ֣םu.ve.Mo.sa.Ram
H4561
admonition · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 36:10 He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.
Job 36:15 He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression.
Psalms 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Isaiah 50:5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,…
Luke 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Acts 16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, t…
2 Samuel 7:27 For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 33:14-18
Job had complained that God kept him wholly in the dark concerning the meaning of his dealings with him, and therefore concluded he dealt with him as his enemy. "No," says Elihu, "he speaks to you, but you do not perceive him; so that the fault is yours, not his; and he is designing your real good even in those dispensations which you put this harsh construction upon." Observe in general, 1. What a friend God is to our welfare: He speaketh to us once, yea, twice, Job 33:14. It is a token of his favour that, notwithstanding the distance and quarrel between us and him, yet he is pleased to speak to us. It is an evidence of his gracious design that he is pleased to speak to us of our own concer…
Literally, "sealeth (their ears) to Himself by warnings," that is, with the sureness and secrecy of a seal He reveals His warnings [UMBREIT]. To seal up securely (Job 37:7).
Adam Clarke on Job 33:16
III. By secret Inspirations
Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth, etc. - A dream or a vision simply considered is likely to do no good; it is the opening of the understanding, and the pouring in of the light, that make men wise to salvation. Serious alarms, holy purposes, penitential pangs for past sins, apprehension of death and judgment, discoveries of God's justice, of Christ's love, of the world's vanity, of heaven's excellence, etc., etc., etc., are often used by the Divine Spirit to withdraw men from their evil purpose, and to hide pride from man, Job 33:17; and of all these openings of the ear of the heart, and sealing instructions upon the conscience, we have numerous example…
Then he openeth the ears of men,.... Not the ears of his body, which remaining shut while things are presented to his mind in a dream or vision, but his internal ears; it is the same with opening the heart or understanding to attend to and receive the things delivered in this visionary way:
and sealeth their instruction; sends home the instruction given in this manner, and imprints it upon the mind, so that it is well remembered when awake, not only the dreams themselves, but the lessons taught and learnt there, as may be observed in the cases of Abimelech and Laban, Genesis 20:3; the word signifies "chastisement" (l) as well as instruction, that being one way in which God teaches and instr…
The Church Fathers
Then He openeth the ears of men, and teaching, instructeth them with discipline. For when they are dead to outward objects, they hear with open ears the causes which come before their inward judgment. And when they consider minutely with themselves either their open punishments, or their secret judgments, they cease not to afflict themselves with tears. Whence it is well said, And teaching, He instructeth them with discipline, because to a mind which reflects and wounds itself with penitence, the sorrows of compunction are like the stripes of a blow. Whence Solomon also rightly uniting together the force of these kinds of blows, says, The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil, and blows in the secret parts of the belly. For by the blueness of a wound he implies the discipline of blows on the body. But blows in the secret parts of the belly are the wounds of the mind within, which are inflicted by compunction. For as the belly is distended when filled with food, so is the mind puffed up when swollen with wicked thoughts. The blueness then of a wound, and blows in the secret parts of the belly, cleanse away evil, because both outward discipline does away with faults, and compunction pierces the distended mind with the punishment of penance. But they differ from each other in this respect, that the wounds of blows give us pain, the sorrows of compunction have good savour. The one afflict and torture, the others restore, when they afflict us. Through the one there is sorrow in affliction, through the other there is joy in grief. But because the very act of compunction wounds the mind, he not unfitly calls it discipline. For there are four modes in which the mind of a righteous man is strongly affected by compunction: when he either calls to mind his own sins, and considers Where He Hath Been; or when fearing the sentence of God's judgments, and examining his own self, he thinks Where He Shall Be: or when, carefully observing the evils of this present life, he reflects with sorrow Where He is; or when he contemplates the blessings of his heavenly country, and, because he does not as yet enjoy them, beholds with regret Where He Is Not. Paul had called to mind his former sins, and was afflicting himself by the sight of what he had been, when he said, I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. Again, from carefully weighing…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agency · IN SALVATION OF MEN — IN SALVATION OF MEN
Ear, The · God: Opens — God: Opens
Philosophy · provi — provi
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
13 Why hast thou contended against Him,
That He answereth not concerning all His doings?
14 Yet no-in one way God speaketh,
And in two, only one perceiveth it not.
15 In the dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed:
16 Then He openeth the ear of men,
And sealeth admonition for them,
17 That He may withdraw man from mischief,
And hide pride from man;
18 That He may keep back his soul from the pit,
And his life from the overthrow of the sword.
Knowing himself to be righteous, and still considering himself treated as an enemy by God, Job has frequently inquired of God, Why then does He treat him thus with enmity, Job 7:20, and why has He bro…
He speaks in dreams: See, e.g., Gen 15:12; 20:3; 31:24; 40:1–41:36; Dan 2:1-45; Joel 2:28; Acts 16:9-10.
Rashi on Job 33:16
Then He opens the ear of men as He did to Abimelech in the dream of the night.
and with their chastisement He seals [them] He seals them and binds them with suffering because of their iniquity.
