Job 33:21

His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen,.... All being gone, none left to be seen, nothing but skin and bones; and this partly through the vehemence of strong pain, and partly through the

His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. His flesh, once prominent, 'can no more be seen.' His bones, once not seen, now appear prominent.

His flesh is consumed away, through pain and pining sickness. That it cannot be seen; because there is none left to be seen; but he who before was fat and flourishing, is now become a mere skeleton. That were not seen, formerly, because they were covered with flesh and fat. But this clause, is and may be rendered thus, and his bones are broken, and are not seen; which is to be metaphorically understood.

Job 33:21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones [that] were not seen stick out.Ver. 21. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen] He that was habilior paulo, corpulent and well lined within, as we say, is so pined with long sickness, that you can hardly know him for the same man, and he may well cry out with the prophet, My leanness, my leanness! Of Christ it is said (though not through sickness), that he had "no form nor comeliness" (and yet he was the fairest among men, Psalms 45:2), through grief and sufferances, "neither was there any beauty left that we should desire him," for his outside, Isaiah 53:2. And of Mr Fox, the martyrologue, it is reported, that having with infinite pains finished that elaborate work of his, the Acts and Monuments of the Church, in eleven years’ time, never using the help of any other man, he grew thereupon so lean and withered, that his friends knew him not (Mr Clark in his Life). Now if sorrow and hard study will so macerate a man, what marvel if long and sharp sickness, and thereby extreme stomachlessness, cause leanness and deformity? And his bones that were not seen] But could hardly be felt for flesh and fat; now they stick out as in an anatomy, so that you may count them, as also the veins and sinews; his body is become a very bag of bones, a skin bottle in the smoke, as David hath it.

Verse 21. His flesh is consumed away] As in atrophy, marasmus, and consumptive complaints in general.

13–28. When Elihu gives the general answer to Job’s charges against God that “God is greater than man” he means that the moral loftiness of God’s nature made it impossible that He should act in the arbitrary, hostile manner charged against Him by Job (comp. ch. Job 36:5). It was but another form of the same charge of arbitrary hostility to man when Job affirmed that God was deaf to all appeal and refused to speak to man; comp. ch. Job 19:7, Job 30:20, and often. To this general form of the charge Elihu directs his attention and replies that God speaks to man in many ways, though He may not answer when challenged as Job had challenged Him; comp. ch. Job 35:14. He speaks to man in ways becoming His greatness, ways that shew that His goodness is over all His works. Job 33:13 probably reads Why dost thou contend against him That he giveth not account of any of his matters? that is, Job’s contention or plea against God is that He deals arbitrarily and refuses all account of His dealing.

His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen - He wastes away. His flesh, once vigorous, beautiful, and fair, now disappears.

21. Bones that were not seen — “Wasted are his bones, they no more are seen” — thus the Kethib.