Job 42: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Job answers the LORD, admitting he spoke about things he did not understand, and says that now he has seen God he takes back his words and repents in dust and ashes. The LORD tells Eliphaz that he and his two friends have not spoken rightly about God as Job has, and orders them to bring a burnt offering while Job prays for them; they obey, and God accepts Job's prayer. After Job prays for his friends, the LORD restores him and gives him twice what he had before. Job's family and old friends come with gifts, he gains new flocks and herds, seven sons and three daughters, and lives another hundred and forty years.

Claim by Claim

1. 42:1
   • Job answered the LORD.
   • Job spoke.
2. 42:2
   • Job said he knows that God can do all things.
   • Job said that no purpose or plan of God's can be withheld from him.
3. 42:3
   • Job repeated the question: who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?
   • Job said that therefore he had spoken of what he did not understand.
   • Job said these were things too wonderful for him.
   • Job said he did not know these things.
4. 42:4
   • Job repeated the words: hear now, and I will speak.
   • Job repeated the words: I will question you, and you make it known to me.
5. 42:5
   • Job said he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear.
   • Job said that now his eye sees God.
6. 42:6
   • Job said that therefore he rejects, the object of the rejecting is not stated, and could be himself or his words.
   • Job said he repents in dust and ashes.
7. 42:7
   • This happened after the LORD had spoken these words to Job.
   • The LORD spoke to Eliphaz the Temanite.
   • The LORD said his anger was kindled against Eliphaz.
   • The LORD said his anger was kindled against Eliphaz's two friends.
   • The LORD said they had not spoken of him what is right.
   • The LORD said Job his servant had spoken of him what is right.
8. 42:8
   • The LORD commanded them to take seven bulls and seven rams.
   • The LORD commanded them to go to his servant Job.
   • The LORD commanded them to offer up a burnt offering for themselves.
   • The LORD said that Job his servant would pray for them.
   • The LORD said he would accept Job.
   • The LORD said this was so that he would not deal with them according to their folly.
   • The LORD repeated that they had not spoken of him what is right, as his servant Job had.
9. 42:9
   • Eliphaz the Temanite went.
   • Bildad the Shuhite went.
   • Zophar the Naamathite went.
   • They did as the LORD had spoken to them.
   • The LORD accepted Job.
10. 42:10
    • The LORD restored Job's fortunes.
    • The restoration came when Job prayed for his friends.
    • The LORD gave Job twice as much as all he had had before.
11. 42:11
    • All Job's brothers came to him.
    • All Job's sisters came to him.
    • All his former acquaintances came to him.
    • They ate bread with him in his house.
    • They showed him sympathy.
    • They comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.
    • Each one gave him one kesitah, a unit of money.
    • Each one gave him one gold ring.
12. 42:12
    • The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than his beginning.
    • Job had fourteen thousand sheep and goats.
    • Job had six thousand camels.
    • Job had a thousand yoke of oxen.
    • Job had a thousand female donkeys.
13. 42:13
    • Job had seven sons.
    • Job had three daughters.
14. 42:14
    • Job named the first daughter Jemimah.
    • Job named the second daughter Keziah.
    • Job named the third daughter Keren-happuch.
15. 42:15
    • No women as beautiful as Job's daughters were found in all the land.
    • Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
16. 42:16
    • Job lived a hundred and forty years after this.
    • Job saw his sons and his sons' sons.
    • Job saw four generations.
17. 42:17
    • Job died.
    • Job was old when he died.
    • Job was full of days when he died.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

42:1

In the King James, LORD printed in capital letters stands for God's own name, the special name he told his people. Other kinds of "lord" just mean master.

42:2

The King James "no thought can be withholden from thee" uses "thought" in an old sense: the Hebrew word means a plan or purpose, not a private idea. Most read the line as Job saying no purpose of God's can be blocked; a minority read it as "nothing I plan is hidden from you."

42:3

Job is quoting God's own opening question back to him, God asked it at the start of the speeches (Job 38:2). Ancient Hebrew had no quotation marks, so the King James runs the quotation straight on without warning, which can make it sound as though Job is asking the question himself.

42:4

Again Job repeats God's words back, this time the challenge God issued twice (Job 38:3 and 40:7): the one being questioned was Job, not God.

42:5

Hearing something "by the hearing of the ear" is a Hebrew way of saying you know it only secondhand, by report from other people. Job is contrasting that with direct experience.

42:6

This is one of the most disputed lines in the book. The Hebrew verb translated "I abhor myself" has no object attached to it, so it can mean "I despise myself," "I take back what I said," or even "I melt away." The verb behind "repent" means to change one's mind or to be comforted, and does not by itself imply admitting sin. Sitting in dust and ashes was the customary sign of mourning or grief, not necessarily of guilt.

42:7

Teman was a district of Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea, with a reputation in the ancient world for wise men. None of Job's friends are Israelites. The phrase rendered "spoken of me the thing that is right" can mean either "spoken about me correctly" or "spoken to me rightly"; the Hebrew allows both.

42:8

A burnt offering was an animal killed and burned whole on an altar, with no part of it eaten, the most complete form of sacrifice. Seven was the standard number for a full or complete set. The story is set before Israel had priests or a temple, so the head of a household makes the offering himself and Job acts as the one who prays on the friends' behalf.

42:9

Shuah and Naamah, like Teman, are places outside Israel; their exact locations are unknown. "The LORD accepted Job" means God granted what Job asked for the friends, accepted his prayer, not simply his person.

42:10

"Turned the captivity of Job" is a Hebrew idiom. Job was never a prisoner; the phrase is normally used of bringing exiles home, and here means to reverse someone's fortunes and restore what was lost.

42:11

The shared meal was the customary act of condolence for someone who had been mourning. The coin, Hebrew qesitah, is an unknown unit of weight or value; the word appears only twice elsewhere in the Bible, both times in very old settings, and gives the story an archaic feel. The gold ring was a nose ring or earring, worn by men and women alike as portable wealth as much as ornament.

42:12

Each figure is exactly double what Job owned at the start of the book (seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen, five hundred female donkeys). A "yoke" of oxen is a pair harnessed together to pull a plow, counted as one working unit.

42:13

The number of children is not doubled, Job had seven sons and three daughters before as well. The Hebrew word for "seven" here has an unusual ending, and some readers have taken it as "twice seven," that is fourteen sons, though most translate it simply as seven.

42:14

The names describe beauty and scent: Jemima is linked to a word for dove or for daylight, Kezia is cassia, a cinnamon-like spice, and Kerenhappuch means "horn of eye paint", a small container of the dark cosmetic women used around the eyes.

42:15

Normally daughters inherited land only when there were no sons to inherit. Giving daughters a share alongside their brothers was unusual enough that the narrator points it out.

42:16

A hundred and forty years is twice seventy, the length elsewhere described as a full human lifetime. Seeing four generations of descendants was the ancient picture of a life completed.

42:17

"Old and full of days" is a set phrase used in the Hebrew Bible for a death at the natural end of a long life, the same wording used of Abraham and Isaac.