Chapter Forty-Two

1–6. Job’s second response. 7–16. Epilogue.

Job 42:2. I know that you are able to do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. The description of Behemoth and the crocodile reveals to Job all the power of divine omnipotence (cf. Job 41:2-3). And if this property is the foundation of justice (Job 40:3-9), then he must acknowledge that the sufferings sent to people are a normal phenomenon in the divine governance of the world.

Job 42:3. Who is this that obscures counsel, knowing nothing? Indeed, I have spoken about things too wonderful for me, things I did not know. Accordingly Job acknowledges that his previous speeches were unfounded reasonings about things he did not understand, an unjust denial of divine providence (cf. Job 38:2).

Job 42:4. Listen, I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me. Job 42:5. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eyes see you; Job 42:6. therefore I repent in dust and ashes. God required a response from Job (Job 38:4), and now it is given by the sufferer. All that he had previously said – the product of imperfect outward experience (“heard of you by the hearing of the ear”) – true knowledge has been given to him through revelation, which has enlightened his mind. Not doubting it, Job abandons his former judgments, grieving that they were spoken by him: “I repent in dust and ashes” (cf. Job 2:8). Job 42:7-17. The vindication of Job

Job 42:7. And it was after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: My anger burns against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Job was mistaken only in his judgments about God’s attitude toward him (v. 2–3) and was absolutely right in defending his innocence. On the contrary, his friends were wrong in two ways: they accused him without any foundation of supposed sins (Job 22:5 and following) and based their argument about the divine justice on a false premise – the thought that sin is the cause of suffering. As openly insincere toward Job, they, especially Eliphaz, who set the tone for the speeches of his friends, bring upon themselves the divine anger (cf. Job 13:7 and following).

Job 42:8. Now therefore take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves; and my servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer, lest I deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. The Lord’s statement about Job (v. 7) serves as his vindication, proves the innocence of the sufferer. A vivid demonstration of this innocence is Job’s appearance in the role of priest, an intercessor for his friends before God. As such, he must be recognized by even their standards as a righteous man without sin (Job 22:30; cf. Gen 20:7; Exod 22:31; Num 12:13 and so on). The atoning offering is the same as at the beginning of the book (Job 1:5), a burnt offering, and the number of animals – fourteen – indicates its special solemnity.

Job 42:10. And the Lord restored the fortune of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. “God ended Job’s captivity” (instead of: “restored the fortune of Job”), that is, his disease (Job 7:12). Recognized as innocent, Job is healed of his disease, freed from what served in the eyes of people as proof of his sinfulness (cf. Job 10:15-17). The moment of healing coincides with the moment of the sacrifice: having forgiven his friends, forgotten all the injuries inflicted upon him, Job himself receives forgiveness from God.

Job 42:11. Then all his brothers and sisters and all those who had known him before came to him, and ate food with him in his house; they consoled him and comforted him for all the misery that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a golden ring. Just as his disease before – a sign of supposed sinfulness – drove away from Job all his relatives and friends, beginning with his wife (Job 19:13 and following), so now his recovery – evident proof of righteousness – brings relatives and friends to him. Likewise his former mockeries (Job 19:18) and jeers (Job 30:1) are replaced by words of comfort and the bestowal of gifts – kesites (Gen 33:19; Josh 24:32) – a metal ingot of greater value than the shekel (Gen 33:19; cf. Job 23:16), and golden rings – ornaments for men and women (Exod 32:3). Thus the vanished respect for the sufferer is restored.

Job 42:12. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. Cf. Job 1:3.

Job 42:13. He also had seven sons and three daughters. With respect to children there is no doubling (v. 10) (cf. Job 1:2). But since in the Old Testament view the dead children are not considered permanently lost (2 Sam 12:23), in fact the recovered Job had twice as many children as before.

Job 42:14. He called the name of the first Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. “Jemimah” (from Arabic “yamama”) means “a dove,” “pure as a dove”; “Keziah” means “fragrant as the perfume of cassia”; “Keren-happuch” means “a painted horn” – graceful not so much by nature as by the use of cosmetics (cf. 2 Sam 9:30, Jer 4:30; Ezek 23:40), makeup.

Job 42:15. And in all the land there were no women as beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. The names of Job’s daughters fully corresponded to their appearance. According to the laws of the Israelites, daughters received the right to own land plots only in the absence of brothers (Num 27:8). The customs of the Arabs (Job 1:3), apparently were different.

Job 42:16. After this, Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his sons and his sons’ sons – four generations; The duration of Job’s life before his sufferings is unknown. The Greek-Slavonic translation determines it at 78 years: “and Job lived after the suffering one hundred and seventy years, and all his days were two hundred and forty-eight years.” “He saw his sons” (cf. Job 5:25).

Job 42:17. So Job died, old and full of days. Cf. Job 5:26; Gen 25:8. After verse 17 follows in the Greek-Slavonic text an appendix borrowed from the “Syrian book,” indicating the genealogy of Job (“son of Zares, and his mother was Bosorra, daughter of the sons of Esau”), the time and place of his life (“to be the fifth from Abraham”; “living in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia”) and identifying him with the Edomite king Jobab. As it is absent in the translations of Aquila and Symmachus, it cannot be recognized as original, but can most likely be regarded as the work of some Christian. Its words testify to this: “it is written again that he shall rise with those with whom the Lord will raise up.”