Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 33:17

17. That he may withdraw Man from his purpose , and hide pride from Man.

i. e. God, who was expressed, v. 14. and designed by this Pronoun he both in the foregoing and following Verses.

i. e. From the execution of his purpose. Heb. from his work, i. e. from his evil work, as the Chaldee and Seventy understand it, from sin, which is truly and fitly called Man's work, because it hath its rise in and from him, and is his own proper work, and very agreeable to his Nature in his present corrupt estate, as on the contrary all the good that is in Man is God's proper and peculiar work and is generally ascribed to him in Scripture. So this is noted as the design of God's giving Man this warning to keep him from executing that evil work which possibly he had designed to do; of which see examples, Gen. 20. 5, 6, & 31. 24.

i. e. either, 1. To take it away, as God is said to hide sin, when he quite removes and forgives it, Psal. 32. 1. and sorrow is said to be hid, Job 3. 10. when it never is nor was: and understanding is said to be hid, when it perisheth, Isa. 29. 14. And Pride is here mentioned as the root of those evil purposes or works last mentioned; which for the most part proceed from haughtiness of spirit, whereby men scorn to submit themselves, and their wills and actions to God's Authority, and presume to advance themselves above God, and resolve to follow their own wills and lusts in spight of God, and with contempt of him. Or, Pride may be here put for all matter or occasion of Pride. And God by this means is said to hide Pride from Man, because by these glorious and terrible representations of his divine Majesty to a Man, he takes him off from the contemplation and admiration of his own excellency, which men are generally very prone to reflect upon, and brings him to a sight of his own nothingness and weakness, and to a sense of his dependence upon God, and to an humble and ready submission to his will and pleasure.

Marginal references: Heb. work.