Job 42

Job Submits Himself to Yahweh

¹Then Job replied to Yahweh:

²“I know that You can do all things

and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.

³You asked, ‘Who is this

who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak.

I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’

⁵My ears had heard of You,

but now my eyes have seen You.

• JOB 42:5[NOTABLE]Job got something better than answers: he met God. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing Him.

⁶Therefore I despise myself,

and I repent in dust and ashes.”

• JOB 42:6[ARCHAEOLOGY]An Aramaic Job from Qumran Cave 11, copied in Jesus' day, reads this verse differently, see The Job Targum Scroll Field Notes page
• JOB 42:6[NOTE]I REPENT. Job does not confess a hidden sin. He takes back his words spoken without knowledge, 42:3. The Hebrew can also mean I am comforted. The Job Targum from Qumran reads it another way; see its Field Notes page.

Yahweh Rebukes Job’s Friends

⁷After Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has. ⁸So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”

• JOB 42:7[NOTE]MY SERVANT JOB. God says Job spoke rightly and the friends did not. Job's honest cries were closer to the truth than their neat answers.
• JOB 42:8[NOTE]JOB PRAYS FOR THEM. The men who hurt him need his prayers, and God restores Job after he prays for his friends, 42:10.

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Yahweh had told them; and Yahweh accepted Job’s prayer.

Yahweh Blesses Job

¹⁰After Job had prayed for his friends, Yahweh restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions. ¹¹All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances came and dined with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him over all the adversity that Yahweh had brought upon him. And each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

• JOB 42:10[NOTABLE]Job prayed for the men who had hurt him. Forgiveness opened the door to his healing.
• JOB 42:10[NOTE]DOUBLE. His animals are exactly double, 42:12 and 1:3. He gets ten children again, the same number. Many say that is double too, because the first ten were not lost forever.
• JOB 42:11[NOTE]A PIECE OF SILVER. The Hebrew word, qesitah, is rare. It shows up only here and when Jacob bought land, Genesis 33:19 and Joshua 24:32. Nobody knows its value today. Many see it as one more clue that Job lived in the days of the patriarchs.

¹²So Yahweh blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. ¹⁵No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance among their brothers.

• JOB 42:14[NOTE]HIS DAUGHTERS. Jemimah means dove, Keziah is a sweet spice, and Keren happuch means a little box of eye makeup. They got an inheritance with their brothers, 42:15, which was rare.

¹⁶After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷And so Job died, old and full of years.

• JOB 42:16[NOTE]140 MORE YEARS. Long lives like Abraham, 175, Isaac, 180, and Jacob, 147. The Greek Old Testament says he lived 240 years in all.