The Meaning of Job 33:14 Explained

Job 33:14

KJV: For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

YLT: For once doth God speak, and twice, (He doth not behold it.)

Darby: For God speaketh once, and twice, and man perceiveth it not --

ASV: For God speaketh once, Yea twice, though man regardeth it not.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For God  speaketh  once,  yea twice,  [yet man] perceiveth  it not. 

What does Job 33:14 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 33:14 mean?

For in one [way] may speak God or in two not [Yet man] does perceive it
כִּֽי־ בְאַחַ֥ת יְדַבֶּר־ אֵ֑ל וּ֝בִשְׁתַּ֗יִם לֹ֣א יְשׁוּרֶֽנָּה

בְאַחַ֥ת  in  one  [way] 
Parse: Preposition-b, Number, feminine singular
Root: אֶחָד  
Sense: one (number).
יְדַבֶּר־  may  speak 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: דָּבַר 
Sense: to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing.
אֵ֑ל  God 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: אֵל 
Sense: god, god-like one, mighty one.
וּ֝בִשְׁתַּ֗יִם  or  in  two 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b, Number, fd
Root: שְׁנַיִם  
Sense: two.
יְשׁוּרֶֽנָּה  [Yet  man]  does  perceive  it 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine singular, third person feminine singular
Root: שׁוּר  
Sense: to see, behold, observe, regard.