Job 33:23

If there is an angel beside him, one mediator ¹  out of a thousand, to tell a person what constitutes his uprightness; ² 

"Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him,

"If there is an angel as mediator for him, One out of a thousand, To remind a man what is right for him,

"But if a special messenger from heaven is there to intercede for a person, to declare that he is upright,

"But even then an angel could come, a champion--there are thousands of them!--to take up your cause,

If now there may be an angel sent to him, one of the thousands which there are to be between him and God, and to make clear to man what is right for him;

Then, if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a thousand, one who declares a person upright,

"If there is a messenger for him, A mediator, one among a thousand, To show man His uprightness,

If there is an angel beside him, one mediator ¹  out of a thousand, to tell a person what constitutes his uprightness; ² 

¹ sn The verse is describing the way God can preserve someone from dying by sending a messenger (translated here as “angel”), who could be human or angelic. This messenger will interpret/mediate God’s will. By “one … out of a thousand” Elihu could have meant either that one of the thousands of messengers at God’s disposal might be sent or that the messenger would be unique (see Eccl 7:28; and cp. Job 9:3).

² tn This is a smoother reading. The MT has “to tell to a man his uprightness,” to reveal what is right for him. The LXX translated this word “duty”; the choice is adopted by some commentaries. However, that is too far from the text, which indicates that the angel/messenger is to call the person to uprightness.