Commentary on
The Book of Job

Chapter Forty-Two: Happy Endings

Job Humbles Himself
- You Can Do Anything
God Puts All Aright
- When He Prayed
- Blessed More Than His Beginning

Job Humbles Himself

Job: chapter 42
¹ Then Job answered the Lord, and said,

² I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

³ Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
⁴ Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
⁵ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
⁶ Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

God has perfectly summed up self-righteous pride, but He has also unveiled true righteousness. Job suddenly sees. He doesn't need to be prodded to answer now. His answer is a genuine appreciation: “things too wonderful for me, which I knew not” (42:3). Job concludes, “now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5-6). Isaiah has a similar experience, when the vision of the Lord touches him, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isa. 6:5).

You Can Do Anything

While Job understood God's power intellectually, now he understands it in the raw. “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee” (42:2). Job suddenly sees himself totally exposed, naked before the Lord. He sees himself, where he did not see himself before.

Job appears to quote God, “Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?” (42:3, 38:2). It is not a direct quote. Job uses the Hebrew term ‘âlam’, to veil (Strong, H5956), rather than ‘châshak’, to darken (Strong, H2821). Job is stating things more forcefully than God now. I covered over Your advice, without knowledge. There is a tone of greater culpability in this word change. While God limits Job's ‘darkening’ to words spoken in ignorance (38:2), but Job ‘veils’ “without knowledge” (42:3) implying there may be other areas contributing to his intentional ignorance. Job answers directly, “therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not” (42:3). He is admitting that he has opened his mouth in bitter frustration, failing to believe that God would not cause him to suffer without a cause.

This is the ever present question of faith. In the end, God graciously shows Job the way out, but does not explain any of the causes. In the manifest presence of God, Job's faith springs back to life, and he sees the folly of his struggle. Zacharias is smitten dumb because he wanted proof from the angel who told him he would have a son in his old age (Luke 1:20). “Because thou believest not my words”, the angel says, you will be unable to speak until the prophesy is fulfilled. Because Job doubts God, he struggles needlessly. God tells Job that he could have been free at any moment (40:14).

Job quotes again, “Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me” (42:4, 38:3). “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee” (42:5). God is before Job in full splendor. Job's situation hasn't changed but he has forgotten all of his problems.

Job's choice is to hang on to his last vestige of pride, his wounds, his dignity, his integrity, or to fall down and worship God. It is the choice of Leviathan or Behemoth. Job chooses the latter. Job is ready to cleave fully to the Lord despite all of his tragic circumstances. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Ps. 34:18). Having surrendered his glory to God, God is ready to truly honor Job: “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation” (Ps. 91:14-16).

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God Puts All Aright

Job: chapter 42 continued
⁷ And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite,

My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. ⁸ Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks 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 him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. ¹⁰ And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
¹¹ Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.

¹² So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. ¹³ He had also seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. ¹⁵ And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
¹⁶ After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. ¹⁷ So Job died, being old and full of days.

God turns now to level His anger on the three friends who criticised Job and forsook him. Because they have dared to condemn Job in God's name, God condemns them. Job for all of his “neesings” is accepted as “having spoken right” of God. The critical difference is that for all of Job's conjectures, challenges and demands, he never presumes to speak for God.

When He Prayed

God demands that the three friends humble themselves, not to God, but to Job. They must bring seven bulls and seven rams and offer them under Job's covering. This must have been a standard offering. Baalam requests Balak make just such an offering (Num. 23:1 & 29). The three must seek Job's blessing. God simply says, “my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept” (42:8).

Job is not being required to pray for them. This is the true moment of truth for Job. If Job has truly forsaken himself and placed himself entirely in God, his injured pride will become unimportant. His pride must now be a disgusting memory, which blots out the injury done to him. As the Lord has forgotten Job's prideful contention, Job forgets the accusations of the three men. In the final act by which he pre-figures Christ, Job blesses those who have poorly used him. This is the moment, not before, when Job is set free from the tormentor: “the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends” (42:10).

Almost immediately, Job's fortunes return. “Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (42:10). Job returns to his home where all of his family and acquaintances returned to comfort him, to bless him and give him money and give him a ring. The money is called ‘q^esîtâh’ in Hebrew (Strong, H7192). Clarke notes that “‘kesitah’ signifies a lamb; and it is supposed that this piece of money had a lamb stamped on it, as that quantity of gold was generally the current value for a lamb” (Clarke, note on 42:11, also note on Gen. 33:19). In this regard, the lamb is the sacrifice demanded for the Passover of the Lord's wrath before the Israelites leave Egypt (Exod. 12:3-10). It is the most common sacrifice demanded in the law of Moses. Here the price of a lamb cleanses and restores each person's relationship to Job. The ring is an ear ring or nose ring (Barnes, note to 42:11). This too is a sign of humility before Job.

Blessed More Than His Beginning

When we truly understand what Job has gained, his financial gain is anti-climactic. Surely the wealth is of little significance to Job compared to his new depth of relationship to God. He now stands comfortable under the wings of God (Ps. 91:4). Job has seven more sons and three more daughters to replace the ten children lost. Oddly enough, we are told about the daughters, but not the sons. We are given their names and told that they received a portion of Job's inheritance along with the brothers (42:14-15). For an interesting discussion of this, see Bob Sorge's Pain, Perplexity and Promotion (Sorge 1999, 155-164).

This remarkable man, Job lives to see four generations of children. But, his true legacy is this study of a man's struggle in the refiner's fire. The book of Job represents the most complete description of the final struggle between self-righteousness and Godly righteousness. It is the only proper starting point for any Christian psychology. Wisdom which does not grasp the book of Job, is doomed to falter, as did Solomon. Perhaps the best ending to Job is included in this line added to chapter 42, verse 17, which some versions of the Septuagint include in an appendix: “And it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up” (The Companion Bible, Appendix 62).

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*All Bible quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.