Jobchapter 42
17 verses · unknown · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
After the LORD 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.
Introduction
unknown, Wisdom and poetry, Job Overview.
The book closes in this chapter. Job gives his last answer to the LORD, and then the book returns to the prose of its opening chapters. God gives His verdict on the whole debate, and it goes against the men who defended Him. The friends are sent to offer sacrifice and to ask Job to pray for them, with no priest or sanctuary in view. Listen for the difference between hearing of God and seeing Him. Listen also for the moment at which Job's restoration begins.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who needed to know how the story ends, and what God finally said about the argument
- What
- Job's last answer, God's verdict on the friends, Job's prayer for them and the restoration of his household.
- Where
- The ash heap, and then Job's rebuilt household with his family gathered in it.
- When
- The book sets Job in the age of the patriarchs, commonly placed about 2000 to 1800 BC, and it gives no date; Job lives 140 years after these events.
- Why
- To close the book with God's judgment on the debate and to show Job restored after he prayed for his friends.
Historical context
Job's answer is short. He repents in dust and ashes, the material he has been sitting on for the whole book, and says the line the book has been driving at: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. He does not confess to the crimes the friends invented. He withdraws his demand for a hearing, having received something better than a verdict.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
God's judgment on the argument is then given in plain words, and it goes the way nobody in the story expected. To Eliphaz: my wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. The men who defended God are found guilty of misrepresenting him; the man who complained is called right.
Their remedy is patriarchal to the core. Seven bulls and seven rams, offered by the friends themselves, with Job praying for them, a large sacrifice, and no priest and no sanctuary anywhere in view, exactly as in chapter 1. The last thing Job does before his own restoration is intercede for the men who tormented him, and the text says the LORD accepted Job and turned his captivity when he prayed for his friends.
The restoration details are dating evidence in themselves. His brothers and sisters come and eat with him and each gives him a qesitah, an archaic unit of value that appears in only two other places in the whole Old Testament, both patriarchal, Jacob buying ground at Shechem and the same purchase recalled in Joshua. Nobody using a later Hebrew vocabulary would have reached for that word. His livestock is doubled, he has seven sons and three daughters again, and the daughters are named, Jemima, Kezia, and Keren-happuch, and given an inheritance among their brothers, which was unusual enough that hearers would have caught it. He dies old and full of days, having seen his sons to the fourth generation.
Significance
The ending has troubled readers for centuries, because giving a bereaved father new children does not replace the ten he buried, and the book knows it. What the chapter actually asserts is narrower and harder: God is not the mechanism the friends described, Job was right to keep talking to him, and the accuser's question, whether anyone loves God for nothing, has been answered by a man on an ash heap who had nothing left.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For the first hearers the practical charge was in the sacrifice. God's servant is the one who prays for the people who broke him, and the restoration is dated from that prayer.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book of Job, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins it to the study of the Torah portions through the Midrash arranged by them. Under the second verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 4:1. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 30:1. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 19:1. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 8:2.
How it is read
Rashi and Malbim are the two commentators on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Malbim is quoted from Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Job answers God, and Rashi reads the reply as Job's word that God can do anything that pleases Him (Rashi on Job 42:2:1). No plan is withheld from Him, since strength and might are in His hand, and Rashi sets the phrase beside a verse in Genesis (Rashi on Job 42:2:2). Job admits that he related God's mighty deeds only as he knew them in his heart (Rashi on Job 42:3:1). He did not understand as much as God has now told him, for many wonders are hidden from him (Rashi on Job 42:3:2).
At the fifth verse Rashi says Job had heard of God many times, and now his eye has seen the Shechinah (Rashi on Job 42:5:1). Because he merited that sight, he despises his life and would return to the dust from which he was taken (Rashi on Job 42:6:1).
Malbim reads the same verse as prophecy. Job now knows for certain what he had only believed, and perhaps at times doubted. God governs every detail of the world, and the soul is divine and returns after death to its abode with the Lord of Hosts (Malbim on Job 42:5:1). "For all the physical joy or suffering in this world is as nothing compared to one moment of the soul’s life with God in the hereafter" (Malbim on Job 42:5:1).
God then turns to the friends, and Rashi names the two companions of the seventh verse as Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite (Rashi on Job 42:7:1). His long note on the seventh verse weighs the two sides. Job rebelled only in two sayings of the ninth chapter, one of them on the Adversary who denounces the world. Whatever more he said came from the severity of his pains. The friends condemned him and held him wicked. When they were silenced, they should have consoled him as Elihu did (Rashi on Job 42:7:2).
The offering is to appease God, on condition that Job prays for the friends (Rashi on Job 42:8:1). Rashi reads God's favor as lifting His countenance, accepting Job's prayer and showing him a bright face (Rashi on Job 42:9:1). The fourteen of the thirteenth verse Rashi reads as twice seven (Rashi on Job 42:13:1). The daughters were named for their beauty (Rashi on Job 42:14:1).
The corpus carries five further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited by ref and unquoted. Two stand at Ramban on Job 42:1:1 and 42:4:1. One stands at Metzudat David on Job 42:4:1. Two stand at Ibn Ezra on Job 42:6:1 and 42:16:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 18:13:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 4:1. On the seventh verse it holds Bava Batra 16b:3, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:39, Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Eliezer, Book of the Ways of Life 25 and Sifrei Zuta 12:11:1. It also holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 741:2. On the eighth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Bava Kamma 8:7:2, Midrash Tehillim 17:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 91:7.
On the tenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 28:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 19:23, Bava Kamma 92a:15, Bereshit Rabbah 30:8, Ein Yaakov, Bava Kamma 8:8, Esther Rabbah 6:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:1:10. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 12:40, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 30:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 19:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 8:2 and Pesikta Rabbati 38:1. It also holds Seder Olam Rabbah 3:1. On the twelfth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 57:4, Kohelet Rabbah 7:8:1, Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 6:7:1 and Ruth Rabbah 6:4.
On the thirteenth verse it holds Bava Batra 16b:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 1:40 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:40. On the fourteenth verse it holds Bava Batra 16b:8 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 43:3. On the fifteenth verse it holds Bava Batra 15b:6, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 1:31, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:33, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 5:6:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 102:5. On the sixteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 61:4, Tractate Soferim 7:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 109:16. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Job 42:2:1 to 42:17:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Job 42:5:1, Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003, reported CC-BY; Ramban, Ramban on Job 42:1:1 and 42:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Job 42:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Job 42:6:1 and 42:16:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/job/42.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Job: I Had Heard of Thee: but Now Mine Eye Seeth Thee
Job 42:1-3
Then Job replied to the LORD: Job's reply takes up God's charge from 38:2 and turns it into his own confession. Henry sees Job make God's rebuke his own indictment in place of defending his earlier words. Barnes reads the confession as answering Job's demand to audit his suffering, not the suffering itself.
You can do all things: Job grants what the LORD has shown him, as Wesley reads it, his power to do all things and full knowledge. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add no plan of the LORD can be thwarted, even plans that looked evil to Job. In the end they will be seen as good.
Job 42:2
“I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no thought is hid from Thee. 2. For against his huge strength he observed; I know that Thou canst do all things; but against his hidden machinations he subjoined; And no thought is hid from Thee.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Job 42:2
“I know that thou canst do everything - This is said by Job in view of what had been declared by the Almighty in the previous chapters. It is an acknowledgment that God was omnipotent, and that man ought to be submissive, under the putting forth of his infinite power. One great object of the address of the Almighty was to convince Job of his majesty, and that object was fully accomplished. And that no thought - No purpose or plan of thine. God was able to execute all his designs.”
Job 42:2
“Job here owns his judgment convinced of the greatness, glory, and perfection of God, from which would follow the conviction of his conscience concerning his own folly in speaking irreverently to him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
things too wonderful for me to know: Job repeats the question the LORD asked at Job 38:2 about counsel without knowledge, and he leaves out by words. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see him confess more than he was charged with. The plan he had denied was too wonderful for him.
Job 42:3
“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? For Leviathan hides counsel without knowledge, because, though he is concealed from our infirmity by many frauds, he is yet disclosed to us by the holy inspiration of our Protector. He hides counsel without knowledge, because though he escapes the notice of those who are tempted, yet he cannot escape the notice of the Protector of the tempted.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:3
“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? - This is repeated from Job 38:2. As used there these are the words of the Almighty, uttered as a reproof of Job for the manner in which he had undertaken to explain the dealings of God; see the notes at that verse. As repeated here by Job, they are an acknowledgment of the truth of what is there implied, that “he” had been guilty of hiding counsel in this manner, and the repetition here is a part of his confession.”
Job 42:3
“Most men in confessing sin palliate rather than confess. Job in omitting "by words" (Job 38:2), goes even further than God's accusation. Not merely my words, but my whole thoughts and ways were "without knowledge." too wonderful--I rashly denied that Thou hast any fixed plan in governing human affairs, merely because Thy plan was "too wonderful" for my comprehension.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 42:4-6
Job repeats God's summons, meeting in reverse his demand at 13:22. The phrase “dust and ashes” is given elsewhere only to Abraham at Genesis 18:27 and to Job at 30:19, and Delitzsch sees Abraham's posture. Gill notes the ashes Job sat in at 2:8 become the ashes he repents in.
Job 42:4
“Hear, and I will speak; I will question Thee, and answer Thou me. 4. To hear, is, with us, to adapt our ear which is in one place to a sound which comes from another. But with God, on the other hand, to Whom nothing is external, hearing is properly for Him to perceive our longings which are rising up beneath Him.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:4
“Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak - This is the language of humble, docile submission. On former occasions he had spoken confidently and boldly of God; he had called in question the equity of his dealings with him; he had demanded that he might be permitted to carry his cause before him, and argue it there himself; Notes, Job 13:3, and notes Job 13:20-22. Now he is wholly changed.”
Job 42:4
“Now he is brought to the prayer Elihu taught him, That which I see not teach thou me. He puts himself into the posture of a penitent, and therein goes upon a right principle. In true repentance there must be not only conviction of sin, but contrition and godly sorrow for it, sorrow according to God, 2 Cor. vii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
now my eyes have seen You: Job heard of the LORD and saw his presence in the cloud of Job 38:1, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it. Spurgeon says Job saw only the edge of his robe. Gregory held Job's progress was as great as the gap between ears that heard and eyes that saw.
Job 42:5
“I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. 5. By these words he doubtless plainly declares, that as far as sight is superior to hearing, so far does the progress also he had made through suffering differ from that which he was before. And because he had beheld more plainly the light of truth with the eye within, he more clearly discerned and beheld the darkness of his humanity.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:5
“JEHOVAH had spoken, Job had trembled. The Lord had revealed Himself, Job had seen Him. Truly, God did but display the skirts of His robe and unveil a part of His ways. But therein was so much of ineffable glory that Job laid his hand upon his mouth in token of his silent consent to the claims of the Everlasting One. God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind concerning the greatness of His power, the wonders of His workings, the splendor of His skill, the infinity of His wisdom.”
Job 42:5
“Hearing and seeing are often in antithesis (Job 29:11; Ps 18:8). seeth--not God's face (Ex 33:20), but His presence in the veil of a dark cloud (Job 38:1). Job implies also that, besides this literal seeing, he now saw spiritually what he had indistinctly taken on hearsay before God's infinite wisdom.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Henry notes that Job first sat among the ashes for his adversity and now sits in the dust for his sins. Chrysostom notes he repents before his trial ends. Gregory said the more a man sees, the more blame he owns.
Job 42:6
“I abhor myself - Compared with thine, my strength is weakness; my wisdom, folly; and my righteousness, impurity. “I loathe myself when thee I see; And into nothing fall.” Repent - I am deeply distressed on account of the imaginations of my heart, the words of my tongue, and the acts of my life. I roll myself in the dust, and sprinkle ashes upon my head.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 42:6
“Wherefore I reproach myself. 6. For the less a person sees himself, the less is he displeased with himself; and the more he discerns the light of greater grace, the more blameworthy does he acknowledge himself to be. For when he is elevated within, by all that he is, he endeavours to agree with that standard which he beholds above him. And because human weakness still impedes him, he perceives that he differs therefrom in no slight degree, and every thing within him is burdensome, which does not agree with that inward standard.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
Jehovah Rebukes the Three Friends, and Job Prays for Them
Job 42:7-8
had spoken these words to Job: God rules on the debate, naming Eliphaz for all three. Their speeches held true words, 5:13 among them, yet God says “you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has”. Henry notes their offering is accepted only through the man they came to correct.
Job 42:7
“But after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, He said to Eliphaz the Themanite, My anger is kindled against thee and thy two friends, because ye have not spoken before Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job. 9. O Lord, the sentence of Thy judgment declares how much our blindness is at variance with the light of Thine uprightness. Behold, we know that in Thy judgment blessed Job is victorious, whom we believed to have sinned against Thee by his words.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Job 42:7
“And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job - Had the matter been left according to the record in Job 42:6, a wholly erroneous impression would have been made. Job was overwhelmed with the conviction of his guilt, and had nothing been said to his friends, the impression would have been that he was wholly in the wrong. It was important, therefore, and was indeed essential to the plan of the book, that the divine judgment should be pronounced on the conduct of his three friends.”
Job 42:7
“Ye have not, &c. - This is not to be understood absolutely, but comparatively. Job was not so much to be blamed as they, because his opinion concerning the methods of God's providence, and the indifferency of its dispensations towards good and bad men was truer than theirs, which was, that God did always reward good men and punish sinners in this life.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Job 42:7
“Their spirit towards Job was unkindly, and to justify themselves in their unkindliness they used false arguments (Job 13:7); (namely, that calamities always prove peculiar guilt); therefore, though it was "for God" they spake thus falsely, God "reproves" them, as Job said He would (Job 13:10). as . . .”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsJob 1:1
take seven bulls and seven rams: Clarke notes that Job is priest here, as at Job 1:5. Gill finds seven bulls and seven rams again in the sacrifice of Balaam at Numbers 23:1. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see Job, who will pray for his friends, as a figure of the one Mediator.
Job 42:8
“Take unto you seven bulls, and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a whole burnt offering. But My servant Job shall pray for you; his face I will accept, that folly be not imputed to you. 11. Behold the just and merciful God neither passes over their faults without reproof, nor yet leaves their guilt without conversion. For since He is our inward Physician, He first made known the corruptions of our wound, and afterwards pointed out the remedies for obtaining health.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:8
“Take - seven bullocks and seven rams - From this it appears that Job was considered a priest, not only in his own family but also for others. For his children he offered burnt-offerings, Job 1:5; and now he is to make the same kind of offerings, accompanied with intercession, in behalf of his three friends. This is a full proof of the innocence and integrity of Job: a more decided one could not be given, that the accusations of his friends, and their bitter speeches, were as untrue as they were malevolent.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 42:8
“Job plainly lived before the legal priesthood, &c. The patriarchs acted as priests for their families; and sometimes as praying mediators (Ge 20:17), thus foreshadowing the true Mediator (1Ti 2:5), but sacrifice accompanies and is the groundwork on which the mediation rests. him--rather, "His person [face] only" (see on Job 22:30).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
So Eliphaz the Temanite: They “did as the LORD had told them”. The three who had spoken wrongly of God are kept as friends, restored through Job's intercession, and the text records no repentance. When “the LORD accepted Job’s request”, Gill notes, God accepted Job for another's sake as well as his own.
Job 42:9
“The Lord also accepted Job - Margin, as in Job 42:8, “the face of.” The meaning is, that he accepted his prayers and offerings in behalf of his friends.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 42:9
“Accepted Job - And as Job prayed and offered sacrifice for those who had grieved and wounded his spirit, so Christ prayed and died for his persecutors, and ever lives, making intercession for transgressors.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jehovah Turns Job's Captivity and Blesses His Latter End
the LORD restored his prosperity: The Hebrew behind “the LORD restored his prosperity” is the exile-return formula of Deuteronomy 30:3 and Psalm 126:1, used of one man's fortunes. God “doubled his former possessions”. Delitzsch reads the double against the law of restitution a thief owed his victim, as though Job's loss had been a debt.
Job 42:10
“The Lord turned the captivity of Job - The Vulgate has: Dominus quoque conversus est ad poenitentiam Job; “And the Lord turned Job to repentance.” The Chaldee: “The Word of the Lord (מימרא דיי meymera dayai) turned the captivity of Job.” There is a remark which these words suggest, which has been rarely, if at all, noticed. It is said that the Lord turned the captivity of Job When He Prayed for His Friends.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 42:10
“THE LORD turned the captivity of Job.” So, then, our longest sorrows have a close, and there is a bottom to the profoundest depths of our misery. Our winters shall not frown for ever; summer shall soon smile. The tide shall not eternally ebb out; the floods retrace their march. The night shall not hang its darkness for ever over our souls; the sun shall yet arise with healing beneath his wings,—“The Lord turned again the captivity of Job.” Our sorrows shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them.”
All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances: “All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances”, estranged at 19:13-19, now “dined with him in his house”. Each gave “a piece of silver”, the Hebrew qesitah as at Genesis 33:19, which Delitzsch and Gill read as capital toward the flocks.
Job 42:11
“But there came to him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all that knew him before, and did eat bread with him in his house, and moved the head over him. 23. What is designated by the eating of bread but charity, and what by the moving of the head but admiration? But it is well subjoined, And comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. For to console the grief of one that had been smitten, is to rejoice with him on his pardon after he had been smitten.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:11
“Then came there unto him all his brethren ... - It seems remarkable that none of these friends came near to him during his afflictions, and especially that his “sisters” should not have been with him to sympathize with him. But it was one of the bitter sources of his affliction, and one of the grounds of his complaint, that in his trials his kindred stood aloof from him; so in Job 19:13-14, he says, “He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.”
Job 42:11
“But it is from the Arabic kasat, "weighed out" [UMBREIT], not coined; so Ge 42:35; 33:19; compare with Ge 23:15, makes it likely it was equal to four shekels; Hebrew kashat, "pure," namely, metal.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 42:12-13
So the LORD blessed: Each figure, “14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys”, doubles chapter 1. The “seven sons and three daughters” match the first family's number. Henry and Wesley read the children as doubled too, the first ten alive to God though dead to Job.
Job 42:12
“So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning,.... Which verified the words of Bildad, Job 8:6; though they were spoken by him only by way of supposition.”
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:12
“Of a wicked man it is said, His last state is worse than his first ( Luke xi. 26 ), but of the upright man, His end is peace; and sometimes the nearer it is the clearer are the views of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 42:12
“Just double to what they were, chap. i, 3. This is a remarkable instance of the extent of the Divine providence, to things that seem minute as this, the exact number of a man's cattle; as also of the harmony of providence, and the reference of one event to another: for known unto God are all his works, from the beginning to the end.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
seven sons and three daughters: is the same number as before. Clarke notes that the Chaldee doubles the sons to fourteen, where the Vulgate and Septuagint keep seven. Barnes observes that the text says nothing of Job's wife or of a second marriage.
Job 42:13
“And he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses; and he had seven sons, and three daughters. 36. That he had had seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, before the trial of his scourging, the preface of this same history points out to us. Those things which were lost through his scourging, were now restored twofold. But as many children were restored as he had lost. For he had seven sons and three daughters.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Job 42:13
“He had also seven sons and three daughters - The same number which he had before his trials. Nothing is said of his wife, or whether these children were, or were not, by a second marriage.”
Job 42:14-15
He named his first daughter Jemimah: Job names his daughters, the only daughters named in the book, while the sons go unnamed. Beside their beauty, “their father granted them an inheritance among their brothers”, and Gill counts this gift beside seven brothers the point worth keeping. Clarke adds naming them marks them as Job's particular delight.
Job 42:14
“The name of the first Jemima - ימימה yemimah, days upon days. Kezia - קציעה ketsiah, cassia, a well-known aromatic plant. And, Keren-happuch - קרן הפוך keren happuch, the inverted or flowing horn, cornucopiae, the horn of plenty. The Chaldee will not permit these names to pass without a comment, to show the reason of their imposition: “He called the first Jemimah, because she was as fair as the day; the second Ketsiah, because she was as precious as cassia; the third Keren-happuch, because her face was as splendid as the emerald.” Cardmarden’s Bible, 1566, has the Hebrew names.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:14
“And he called the name of one Dies, and the name of the second Casia, and the name of the third Cornustibii. 43. Because these names are derived from virtues, the translator appropriately took care not to insert them as they are found in the Arabic language, but to shew their meaning more plainly when translated into the Latin tongue. For who can be ignorant that Dies and Casia are Latin words?”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
Job 42:14
“The next Kezia, a spice of a very fragrant smell, because (says bishop Patrick) God had healed his ulcers, the smell of which was offensive. The third Keren-happuch (that is Plenty restored, or A horn of paint ), because (says he) God had wiped away the tears which fouled his face, ch. xvi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
granted them an inheritance among their brothers: Barnes notes that under Numbers 27:8 a daughter received an inheritance only where there were no sons. Their father granted his daughters one among their brothers, a mark of special regard. Clarke recalls the daughters of Zelophehad.
Job 42:15
“In the Old Testament we often find women praised for their beauty, as Sarah, Rebekah, and many others; but we never find any women in the New Testament whose beauty is in the least taken notice of, no, not the virgin Mary herself, because the beauty of holiness is that which is brought to a much clearer light by the gospel.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 42:16-17
After this, Job lived 140 years: He died “old and full of years”, the formula Genesis 25:8 uses of Abraham, a death named as fullness. James 5:11 joins Job's endurance to the outcome the Lord gave him. Davidson reads that verse as the New Testament's judgment on the chapters of complaint before it.
Job 42:16
“But Job lived after these scourges a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even to the fourth generation, and he died an old man, and full of days. 47. In Holy Scripture a person is not easily recorded as 'full of days,' unless he is one whose conduct is praised in the same Scripture. For he is in truth void of days, who, even if he has lived ever so long, has wasted the time of his life in vanity.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXVpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 42:16
“The Septuagint makes Job live a hundred seventy years after his calamity, and two hundred forty in all. This would make him seventy at the time of his calamity, which added to a hundred forty in Hebrew text makes up two hundred ten; a little more than the age (two hundred five) of Terah, father of Abraham, perhaps his contemporary.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 42:16
“As God appointed to Adam another seed instead of that which was slain ( Gen. iv. 25 ), so he did to Job with advantage. God has ways to repair the losses and balance the griefs of those who are written childless, as Job was when he had buried all his children.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
old and full of years: Clarke takes the word behind full of years, seba, as satisfied. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see Job die as Eliphaz said the godly would at Job 5:26. The Septuagint adds that Job will rise again, a line they suspect was drawn from Matthew 27:52 and 53.
Job 42:17
“So Job died, being old and full of days - Having filled up the ordinary term of human life at that period of the world. He reached an honored old age, and when he died was not prematurely cut down. He was “regarded” as an old man.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job, Cambridge Bible; Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2009: “Job Among the Ashes” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 42:6; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.