The Meaning of Job 33:24 Explained

Job 33:24

KJV: Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.

YLT: Then He doth favour him and saith, 'Ransom him from going down to the pit, I have found an atonement.'

Darby: Then he will be gracious unto him, and say, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.

ASV: Then God is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Then he is gracious  unto him, and saith,  Deliver  him from going down  to the pit:  I have found  a ransom. 

What does Job 33:24 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 33:24 mean?

and He is gracious to him and says Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a ransom
וַיְחֻנֶּ֗נּוּ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר פְּ֭דָעֵהוּ מֵרֶ֥דֶת שָׁ֗חַת מָצָ֥אתִי כֹֽפֶר

וַיְחֻנֶּ֗נּוּ  and  He  is  gracious  to  him 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Consecutive imperfect, third person masculine singular, third person masculine singular
Root: חָנַן 
Sense: to be gracious, show favour, pity.
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר  and  says 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Consecutive imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: אָמַר 
Sense: to say, speak, utter.
פְּ֭דָעֵהוּ  Deliver  him 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperative, masculine singular, third person masculine singular
Root: פָּדַע  
Sense: (Qal) to deliver.
מֵרֶ֥דֶת  from  going  down 
Parse: Preposition-m, Verb, Qal, Infinitive construct
Root: יָרַד  
Sense: to go down, descend, decline, march down, sink down.
שָׁ֗חַת  to  the  Pit 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: שַׁחַת  
Sense: pit, destruction, grave.
מָצָ֥אתִי  I  have  found 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, first person common singular
Root: מָצָא  
Sense: to find, attain to.
כֹֽפֶר  a  ransom 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: כֹּפֶר 
Sense: price of a life, ransom, bribe.