Albert Barnes Commentary Job 33:6

"Behold, I am toward God even as thou art: I also am formed out of the clay." — Job 33:6 (ASV)

Behold, I am according to your wish in God's stead - Margin, as in Hebrew “mouth.” The mouth is that by which we express our desires, and the word here is equivalent to wish.

Some, however, have rendered this differently. Umbreit translates it, "Ich bin, wie du, von Gott" — I am, as you are, from God. So Noyes, “I, like you, am a creature of God.” Wemyss, “I am your equal in the sight of God.” Coverdale, “Behold, before God am I even as you, for I am fashioned and made even of the same mold.” The Vulgate renders it, “Behold God made me as he made you; and of the same clay am I formed.” So the Septuagint, “From clay am I formed as well as you, and we are formed from the same.”

This interpretation also seems to be demanded by the parallelism, where he says that he was made of the same clay as Job—that is, that he was a man like him.

Still, it seems to me that the fair and obvious meaning of the Hebrew is that which is expressed in our common version. The Hebrew is, לאל כפיך הן־אני כפי hēn'ănı̂y k ^e piykā lā'ĕl — “Lo, I am, according to your mouth (word, or wish) for God;” that is, I am in His place; I speak in His name. I am so commissioned by Him that you may regard yourself as in fact speaking to Him when you address His ambassador.

This will also accord with what is said in Job 33:7, and with what Job had so earnestly desired: that he might be allowed to bring his cause directly before God (see the notes at Job 13:3).

I also am formed out of the clay - Margin, “cut.” The figure is taken from the act of the potter, who cuts off a portion of clay which he molds into a vessel, and there is manifest allusion here to the statement in Genesis, that God made man of the dust of the ground. The meaning in this connection is, “Though I am in the place of God, and speak in His name, yet I am also a man, made of the same frail material as yourself. In me, therefore, there is nothing to overawe or confound you as there would be if God spoke Himself.”