Job 42

General context

Job answers the Lord. He knows the Lord can do everything and that no thought can be withheld from him. Who hides counsel without knowledge? He has uttered what he did not understand, things too wonderful for him. He asks to be heard and to speak. He had heard of the Lord by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye sees him; therefore he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes. After the Lord has spoken these words to Job, the narrator reports, the Lord tells Eliphaz the Temanite that his wrath is kindled against him and his two friends, because they have not spoken of the Lord what is right, as his servant Job has. They are to take seven bullocks and seven rams to Job and offer a burnt offering, and Job will pray for them; him the Lord will accept. Eliphaz, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite do as commanded, and the Lord accepts Job. When Job prays for his friends, the Lord turns his captivity and gives him twice what he had before. His brothers, sisters and acquaintances come, eat with him, bemoan and comfort him over all the evil the Lord had brought on him, and each gives money and a gold earring. The Lord blesses his latter end more than his beginning: fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she asses, seven sons and three daughters. He names the daughters Jemima, Kezia and Keren-happuch; no women in the land are so fair, and he gives them inheritance among their brothers. Job lives a hundred and forty years after this, sees four generations, and dies old and full of days.

Cited passages: Job 42:1, Job 42:2, Job 42:3, Job 42:4, Job 42:5, Job 42:6, Job 42:7, Job 42:8, Job 42:9, Job 42:10, Job 42:11, Job 42:12, Job 42:13, Job 42:14, Job 42:15, Job 42:16, Job 42:17

Job 42 (KJV)

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

Three voices share the chapter: Job in verses 1 to 6, the Lord speaking to Eliphaz in verses 7 and 8, and the narrator from verse 7 to the end. The Lord's verdict that the three friends "have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" is the book's only stated judgment on the dialogue; it is addressed to Eliphaz and his two friends, and Elihu is not mentioned anywhere in the chapter, so the text gives no verdict on him. Job's repentance "in dust and ashes" is his own statement, and the text does not specify what he repents of beyond having "uttered that I understood not"; readers differ on how his repentance and the Lord's approval of his speech fit together, and the chapter does not explain it. The narrator says Job's brethren, sisters and acquaintances comforted him "over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him," while the prologue showed Satan striking Job with the Lord's permission. The restored flocks are exactly double the prologue's seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she asses; the count of children, seven sons and three daughters, matches the prologue and is not doubled. The daughters are named and the sons are not. Job's age at death is not given, only the hundred and forty years lived after this.

Cited passages: Job 42:1, Job 42:7, Job 42:6, Job 42:3, Job 42:11, Job 2:7, Job 1:3, Job 42:12, Job 1:2, Job 42:13, Job 42:16

Literary context

Job's reply quotes the Lord back to him. "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge" answers the Lord's opening "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge," and "I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me" repeats the Lord's challenge word for word. His "now mine eye seeth thee" closes the search of chapter 23, where he could not see God in any direction, and "dust and ashes" recalls both the ashes he sat in and his complaint that God made him like dust and ashes. The epilogue then mirrors the prologue. The Lord calls Job "my servant" four times, as he did to Satan. Burnt offerings return, but where Job once offered them for his children, the friends now offer them and Job prays for the friends. Flocks are doubled, the same number of children is born, and where his children died at a feast, his kin now eat bread in his house. The narrator's verdicts at the start, that Job sinned not, are matched by the Lord's verdict at the end that he spoke what is right. What the narrator withholds is as marked as what he gives: Job is never told of the scene in heaven, and Satan does not reappear.

Cited passages: Job 42:3, Job 38:2, Job 42:4, Job 40:7, Job 42:5, Job 23:9, Job 2:8, Job 30:19, Job 42:8, Job 1:5, Job 1:19, Job 42:11, Job 1:22, Job 42:7

Key moments

1. Things too wonderful (Job 42:3). Job admits he spoke of what he did not understand.
2. Now mine eye seeth thee (Job 42:5). Job says he had only heard of God before, but now sees him.
3. Repentance in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). Job abhors himself and repents.
4. The friends rebuked (Job 42:7). The Lord tells Eliphaz that he and his two friends have not spoken rightly, as Job has.
5. Job prays for his friends (Job 42:10). The Lord turns Job's captivity when he prays for them and gives him double.
6. Daughters given inheritance (Job 42:15). Job's three named daughters receive inheritance among their brothers.
7. Old and full of days (Job 42:17). Job dies after a hundred and forty more years and four generations.

For reflection

The Lord says Job spoke of him "the thing that is right," in the same chapter where Job says he uttered what he did not understand and repents. How can both be true of the same speeches?

People in this chapter

• Job

Also indexed here:

• Eliphaz
• Teman
• Bildad
• Jemimah
• Keren-happuch
• Keziah
• Zophar