He delivers the afflicted by their affliction describes Elihu’s view of the meaning of discipline. God uses the suffering of the one who suffers to rescue him. This verse leads up to the application of Elihu’s wisdom to Job’s own case. Delivers means “saves, rescues, spares.” Good News Translation focuses on the sense of being disciplined, with “God teaches men through suffering,” that is, “God teaches people by allowing them to suffer.” Dhorme translates afflicted as “poor,” and this is followed by Bible en français courant. New English Bible says “those who suffer, he rescues through suffering.”

Opens their ear is the same expression used in verse 10 and in 33.16, where the sense is “makes them listen,” and it has that sense here also. Adversity translates a word meaning also “oppression or suffering” and is close in meaning to affliction in the previous line. Good News Translation shifts from the ear to the eye with “he uses distress to open their eyes,” that is, to make them see the error of their ways. The shift to “eyes” should only be used if it is natural in the receptor language and has the meaning as in Good News Translation. Verse 15 may also be rendered “God uses suffering to save people who suffer; he uses pain to make them understand” or “God teaches people by allowing them to suffer, and he makes them listen to him by letting them have troubles.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .