Job Replies to the LORD
1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 I know that you can do anything
and no plan of yours can be thwarted. z
3 You asked, “Who is this who conceals my counsel with ignorance? ” a
Surely I spoke about things I did not understand,
things too wondrous for me to know. b
4 You said, “Listen now, and I will speak.
When I question c you, you will inform me.”
5 I had heard reports about you,
but now my eyes d have seen you.
6 Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them;
I am dust and ashes. ,
7 After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then my servant Job will pray for you. e I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.
God Restores Job
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and doubled his previous possessions. f 11 All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances g came to him and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. Each one gave him a piece of silver ,h and a gold earring. i
12 So the LORD blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first. He owned fourteen thousand sheep and goats, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. j 15 No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers.
16 Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 Then Job died, old and full of days. k
42:1–4. In 42:2–3, Job five times uses terms that refer to knowledge, plans, and understanding, showing that he has come to an enlarged recognition of the wisdom and power of God as he has contemplated the questions God posed. He realizes that his adversity must fall within God’s purpose, which cannot be thwarted by any force (cf. Dn 4:35). In the sovereignty of God, he directs history to his own ends, which may well be inscrutable to humans (Pr 16:9; 20:24; 21:1).
42:5–6. Earlier Job expressed his desire to see God (19:25–27). Now, Job’s increased understanding of God’s superior knowledge has dramatically enhanced his perception of God, so Job says that his eyes have seen him (42:5). Everything Job knew before was just so much hearsay when compared with what he has come to know of God.
42:7–9. In the epilogue God assesses each of the major characters except Elihu, whom he ignores. What he says about them is determinative for interpreting the book. The friends have tried to protect God’s reputation by insisting that Job must have sinned, but by extrapolating the retribution principle into an indictment of Job they have reduced God to a predictable deity confined by a fixed formula. God now calls on Job to reprise his role of a mediator and to intercede in prayer for his friends, who have angered God by not speaking the truth (42:7–8), just as previously he offered sacrifices for his own children in case they had sinned against God (1:5).
42:10–17. The restored divine blessings (42:10) are not contingent on Job’s confession of his own sins (contrary to what Bildad predicted in 8:7) but are granted by God after Job obediently intercedes for his friends. In this, Job is not motivated by self-interest, as the adversary has wrongly charged (1:9–11). God has restored the relationship between Job and himself and has healed as well the relationships between Job and other people who were once close to him (42:11). During his time of need, Job’s family and closest friends abandoned him (19:13–19), but now they return to fellowship with him. His solitude and pain are replaced by community and rejoicing, as Job receives belated consolation and encouragement.