Job 42
Big idea: Six verses of answer whose central word translators cannot agree on, a verdict that reverses the entire debate — you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has — and an ending that gives everything back without ever explaining anything.
The three friends are told to bring sacrifices and ask Job to pray for them; the man they spent thirty chapters accusing becomes their intercessor.
42:1–6 — Now my eye sees you
The answer begins by granting what the speeches showed: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained. Then he quotes the two summonses back — you asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? and, listen, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me — and concedes: therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn't know.
1 Then Job answered Yahweh: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know. 4 You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
42:7–17 — You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has
The verdict is the reversal the whole book has been building toward, and it is addressed by name: Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. The man who accused God to his face is commended for speaking rightly about him; the three who defended God's justice are told they have not. And the remedy required is humiliating and specific: seven bulls and seven rams, offered as a burnt offering, and my servant Job will pray for you — for I will accept him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly. They have to ask the man they spent thirty chapters condemning to intercede for them. The narrator notes that restoration came when he prayed for his friends.
7 It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job. 10 Yahweh restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, came to him and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold. 12 So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch. 15 In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations. 17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).