Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.
Several arguments Elihu here uses to persuade Job not only to give him a patient hearing, but to believe that he designed him a good office, and to take it kindly, and be willing to receive the instructions he was now about to give him. Let Job consider, 1. That Elihu does not join with his three friends against him.
Commenting on Job 33:1-7
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead,.... So some persons are, as civil magistrates, the ministers of the word, the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of the New; see Co2 5:20; and so in some sense was Elihu; he undertakes to be an advocate for God, to vindicate his justice in his dealings with the children of men, and...
(See on Job 33:4; Job 31:35; Job 13:3, Job 13:20-21). formed--Though acting as God's representative, I am but a creature, like thyself. Arabic, "pressed together," as a mass of clay by the potter, in forming a vessel [UMBREIT]. Hebrew, "cut off," as the portion taken from the clay to form it [MAURER].