Bible Strands
Job 33:25
then his flesh is refreshed like a child’s; he returns to the days of his youth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job, describing the precise moment God intervenes to spare a person from the Pit after securing a ransom. The speaker outlines the immediate physical and spiritual reversal that follows divine grace.
The words — רֻֽטֲפַ֣שׁ (ru.ta.Fash) translates literally as "it grows fresh," paired with עֲלוּמָֽי/ו\׃ ('a.lu.Ma/v), meaning "his youth." These terms anchor the restoration in tangible bodily renewal and temporal return.
The thread — The motif of divinely restored vitality appears in Psalms 103:5, where youth is renewed like an eagle’s, and 2 Kings 5:14, where Naaman’s flesh is restored after dipping in the Jordan. Joshua 14:10 further illustrates God’s power to sustain life across decades.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that physical renewal and temporal return are direct results of God’s ransom and favor, not human achievement. It requires the reader to acknowledge divine initiative as the sole cause of restored vigor and righteousness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:
Cross-references
- Psalms 103:5 who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
- 2 Kings 5:14 So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored and became like that of a little child, and he was clean.
- Joshua 14:10 Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old,
- Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.
- Job 42:16 After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
- Hosea 2:15 There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.