Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 42:7
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].
7. the thing which is right ] The Lord blames the three friends for not speaking that which was right concerning Him, not concerning Job; He also commends Job for speaking what was right concerning Him. It is obvious that the three friends spoke many just and profound things concerning God, and that Job on the other hand said many things that were both blameworthy and false, things for which he was both rebuked by the Almighty, and expressed his penitence. The reference cannot be to such things as these. Neither can the charge made against the friends here be merely that brought against them by Job, that they did not speak in honesty and sincerity (ch. Job 6:25, Job 13:7), though this may be included. Rather, the friends are blamed for speaking in regard to God that which was not right, or true, in itself; and the reference must be to the theories they put forth in regard to God’s providence and the meaning of afflictions. On this point the friends spoke in regard to God what was not right, while Job spoke that which was right (ch. Job 21:23-24). The Author puts the Divine imprimatur on his own theory of the meaning of suffering, or at least on Job’s attacks on the theories advocated by the three friends.
The three friends “had really inculpated the providence of God by their professed defence of it. By disingenuously covering up and ignoring its enigmas and seeming contradictions, they had cast more discredit upon it than Job by honestly holding them up to the light. Their denial of its apparent inequalities was more untrue and more dishonouring to the divine administration, as it is in fact conducted, than Job’s bold affirmation of them. Even his most startling utterances wrung from him in his bewilderment and sore perplexity were less reprehensible than their false statements and false inferences” (Green, Book of Job, p. 219).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Job 42:7-17. Job, having humbled himself before God, is restored to a prosperity two-fold that which he enjoyed before
7 9. Job is commanded to intercede for his three friends lest Jehovah should visit their folly upon them, because they spoke not that which was right concerning Him.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite – Eliphaz had been uniformly first in the argument with Job, and hence, he is particularly addressed here. He seems to have been the most aged and respectable of the three friends, and in fact the speeches of the others are often a mere echo of his.
My wrath is kindled – Wrath, or anger, is often represented as enkindled, or burning.
For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath – This must be understood comparatively. God did not approve of all that Job had said, but the meaning is, that his general views of his government were just. The main position which he had defended in contradistinction from his friends was correct, for his arguments tended to vindicate the divine character, and to uphold the divine government. It is to be remembered, also, as Bouiller has remarked, that there was a great difference in the circumstances of Job and the three friends – circumstances modifying the degrees of blameworthiness chargeable to each. Job uttered indeed, some improper sentiments about God and his government; he expressed himself with irreverence and impatience; he used a language of boldness and complaint wholly improper, but this was done in the agony of mental and bodily suffering, and when provoked by the severe and improper charges of hypocrisy brought by his friends. What they said, on the contrary, was unprovoked. It was when they were free from suffering, and when they were urged to it by no severity of trial. It was, moreover, when every consideration required them to express the language of condolence, and to comfort a suffering friend.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 42:7-9
My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends.
Jobs friends condemned and he acquitted
These words suggest the following reflections.
I. God is an auditor to all the discussions of mankind. If men realised this, all frivolous, vain, ill-natured, deceitful, profane, irreverent, and untruthful speech will be hushed.
II. The professed advocates of religion may commit sin in their advocacy. These three men were engaged in an endeavour to vindicate the ways of God. They considered Job a great heretic; and they took on themselves to stand up for God and truth. Notwithstanding this, they had not spoken of Him the thing that was right. There are professed advocates of religion who speak not the thing that is right concerning God.
III. A practical confession of sin is the duty of all sinners. Take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, etc.
IV. Intercession of one man for another is a Divine law. 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.
1. Intercessory prayer is an instinct of the soul. Nothing is more natural than to cry to heaven on behalf of those in whom we feel a vital interest.
2. Intercessory prayer is a blessing to the soul.
V. The life of a good man is a blessing to a community. My servant Job shall pray for you; for him will I accept; lest I deal with you after your folly. For Jobs sake these men were forgiven and blessed. God educates, saves, and ennobles man by man. (Homilist.)
As My servant Job hath.
My servant Job
Look at Job in his misery. Now comes the problem. Why this sudden, this awful change? Morally, spiritually, religiously, this man is just what he was before. The friends vainly tried to account for it on the score of his own ill-doings and moral defects. Job victoriously repels all their charges and insinuations. Elihu tries to meet the case by arguing that God is greater than man. How can the finite have the infinite made simple? You cannot pour the ocean into a pond. Though we cannot understand His matters, yet He has revealed enough of Himself and His doings, and more than enough, to show us that trust in His providence, loyalty to His rule, and hope in His Word is gloriously certain to result in our safety and security, our sustentation and deliverance, our ultimate prosperity and peace. My servant Job. God calls him by that name in the days of his wealth and prosperity. Riches and grace can go together. God calls him by the same name before ever the days of testing, trial, and calamity came upon him. The expression is used by the Almighty at the end of the book as well as at the beginning, and what was Jobs condition then? Just before this was said, Job bad uttered hard things of his God,–of His government, of His dealings with himself. Even when God came to speak to him he was sullen under a sense of wrong. And yet, in spite of all his faults, infirmities, and sins, the Lord lays His hand lovingly on his bended head, and fondly owns him, in the presence of his three friends, as My servant Job. (J. Jackson Wray.)
In the wrong
It is not the first time in the history of the world that the majority of religious professors have been wrong. The solitary thinker, the philosopher, the heretic, the forlorn monk, the rejected of his day, has been sometimes, even in spite of many errors, in the right, That little group in that unknown land of Uz, who tried to silence the one among them who was in his wild cries and low wails the herald and the apostle of a truth that was one day to be embodied in the symbol of Christs religion–they warn us against thinking that truth is always to be found on the side of numbers, that the God of truth marches always with the largest battalions. How startling to those who heard them, how instructive to us who read them, are the words which we shall find when next we meet, Ye who have been so earnest, so rigid in justifying My ways, and asserting My righteousness; ye have not spoken the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. (Dean Bradley.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. After the Lord had spoken these words] Those recorded at Job 40:7-14; he said to Eliphaz, who was the eldest of the three friends, and chief speaker: Ye have not spoken of me – right. Mr. Peters observes, “It will be difficult to find any thing in the speeches of Eliphaz and his companions which should make the difference here supposed, if we set aside the doctrine of a future state; for in this view the others would speak more worthily of God than Job, by endeavouring to vindicate his providence in the exact distribution of good and evil in this life: whereas Job’s assertion, Job 9:22, ‘This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked,’ which is the argument on which he all along insists, would, upon this supposition, be directly charging God that he made no distinction between the good and the bad. But now, take the other life into the account, and the thing will appear in quite a contrary light; and we shall easily see the reason why God approves of the sentiments of Job, and condemns those of his friends. For supposing the friends of Job to argue that the righteous are never afflicted without remedy here, nor the wicked prosperous on the whole in this life, which is a wrong representation of God’s providence; and Job to argue, on the other hand, that the righteous are sometimes afflicted here, and that without remedy, but shall be rewarded in the life to come; and that the wicked prosper here, but shall be punished hereafter, which is the true representation of the Divine proceedings; and here is a very apparent difference in the drift of the one’s discourse, and of the others’. For Job, in this view, speaks worthily of God, and the rest unworthily. The best moral argument that mankind have ever had to believe in a life to come, is that which Job insists on – that good and evil are, for the most part, dealt out here promiscuously. On the contrary, the topic urged by his friends, and which they push a great deal too far, that God rewards and punishes in this world, tends, in its consequences, like that other opinion which was held by the stoics in after times, that virtue is its own reward, to sap the very foundation of that proof we have, from reason, of another life. No wonder, therefore, that the sentiments of the one are approved, and those of the other condemned.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To Eliphaz the Temanite; as the eldest of the three, and because he spoke first, and by his evil example led the rest into the same mistakes and miscarriages.
Thy two friends, to wit, Bildad and Zophar, who are not excused, but severely reproved, although they, were drawn into the sin by Eliphazs authority and influence. Elihu is not here reproved, because he dealt more justly and mercifully with Job, and did not condemn his person, but only rebuke his sinful expressions.
As my servant Job hath; either,
1. As Job hath now spoken: you have not acknowledged your errors as he hath done. Or rather,
2. As Job did in his discourses with you; which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, (as is manifest from Gods censure upon Job for his hard and evil speeches of him,) but comparatively, because Job was not so much to be blamed as they; partly, because his opinion concerning the methods of Gods providence, and the indifferency and promiscuousness of its dispensations towards good and bad men, was truer than theirs, which was that God did generally reward good men and punish sinners in this life; partly, because their misbelief of Gods counsels and dealings with men was attended with horrid uncharitableness and cruelty towards Job, whom they wounded with bitter and injurious speeches, and condemned as a hypocrite, not only without sufficient evidence, as not being able to search his heart, but upon false and frivolous grounds, to wit, his sore afflictions, and against many evidences of piety which Job had given; and partly, because Jobs heavy pressures might easily cloud and darken his mind, and draw forth his impatience and passionate speeches; which although it did not wholly excuse Job, yet did certainly much extenuate his offences; whereas they were under no such temptations or provocations, either from God or from Job, but voluntarily broke forth into their hard, and severe, and untrue expressions concerning Gods counsels and Jobs conditions, thereby adding affliction to him whom God did sorely afflict, which was most unfriendly and inhuman.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. to Eliphazbecause he wasthe foremost of the three friends; their speeches were but the echoof his.
rightliterally,”well-grounded,” sure and true. Their spirit towards Jobwas unkindly, and to justify themselves in their unkindliness theyused 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 (Job13:10).
as . . . Job hathJobhad spoken rightly in relation to them and their argument,denying their theory, and the fact which they alleged,that he was peculiarly guilty and a hypocrite; but wrongly inrelation to God, when he fell into the opposite extreme ofalmost denying all guilt. This extreme he has nowrepented of, and therefore God speaks of him as now altogether”right.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it was [so],…. What follows came to pass:
that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job; which he spake to him out of the whirlwind, and after he had heard Job’s confession, and the declaration he made of his humiliation and repentance:
the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite; who with his two friends were still present and heard the speeches of the Lord to Job, and the acknowledgment he had made of sin; though some o think that, when the dispute ended between Job and them, they returned to their own country, where Eliphaz is now supposed to be, and was bid with his two friends to go to Job again, which they did, as is concluded from the following verses: but no doubt they stayed and heard what Elihu had to say; and the voice of the Lord out of the whirlwind would command their attention and stay; and very desirous they must be to know how the cause would go, for or against Job; the latter of which they might expect from the appearance of things. Now the Lord directs his speech to Eliphaz, he being perhaps the principal man, on account of his age, wisdom and wealth, and being the man that led the dispute, began it, and formed the plan to go upon, and was the most severe on Job of any of them; wherefore the Lord said to him,
my wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends; who were Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; who gave into the same sentiments with Eliphaz, and went upon the same plan, speaking wrong things of God, charging Job falsely, and condemning him; which provoked the Lord, and caused his wrath to be kindled like fire against them, of which there were some appearances and breakings forth in his words and conduct towards them;
for ye have not spoken of me [the thing that is] right, as my servant Job [hath]; they had said many right things of God, and Job had said many wrong ones of him, and yet upon the whole Job had said more corrcet things of God than they; their notion, and which they had expressed, was, that God deals with men in this life according to their outward behaviour; that God did not afflict good men, at least not sorely, nor long; and that wicked men were always punished now: from whence they drew this inference, that Job, being so long and so greatly afflicted, must be a bad man, or God would never have dealt with him after this manner. Job, on the other hand, affirmed, that wicked men enjoyed great prosperity, which good men did not; and therefore the love and hatred of God were not known by these things; and men’s characters were not to be judged of by these outward things; in which he was doubtless right: some render the words “have not spoken unto me” p, before him, in his presence; for they were all before God, and to him they all appealed, and he heard and observed all that was said, and now passed judgment. No notice is taken of Elihu, nor blame laid on him; he acting as a moderator, taking neither the part of Job, nor of his friends, but blaming both: nor did he pretend to charge Job with any sins of his former life as the cause of his calamities; only takes up some indecent, unguarded, and extravagant expressions of his in the heat of this controversy, and rebukes him for them; and throughout the whole vindicates the justice of God in his dealings with him.
o Vid. Spanhem. Hist. Jobi, c. 8. s. 1, 2. p “ad me”, Mercerus, Drusius, Cocceius; “coram me”, V. L. “apud me”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Job’s confession and tone of penitence are now perfected. He acknowledges the divine omnipotence which acts according to a wisely-devised scheme, in opposition to his total ignorance and feebleness. A world of divine wisdom, of wondrous thoughts of God, now lies before him, concerning which he knows nothing of himself, but would gladly learn a vast amount by the medium of divine instruction. To these mysteries his affliction also belongs. He perceives it now to be a wise decree of God, beneath which he adoringly bows, but it is nevertheless a mystery to him. Sitting in dust and ashes, he feels a deep contrition for the violence with which he has roughly handled and shaken the mystery, – now will it continue, that he bows beneath the enshrouded mystery? No, the final teaching of the book is not that God’s rule demands faith before everything else; the final teaching is, that sufferings are for the righteous man the way to glory, and that his faith is the way to sight. The most craving desire, for the attainment of which Job hopes where his faith breaks forth from under the ashes, is this, that he will once more behold God, even if he should succumb to his affliction. This desire is granted him ere he yields. For he who hitherto has only heard of Jehovah, can now say: ; his perception of God has entered upon an entirely new stage. But first of all God has only borne witness of Himself to him, to call him to repentance. Now, however, since the rust of pollution is purged away from Job’s pure soul, He can also appear as his Vindicator and Redeemer. After all that was sinful in his speeches is blotted out by repentance, there remains only the truth of his innocence, which God Himself testifies to him, and the truth of his holding fast to God in the hot battle of temptation, by which, without his knowing it, he has frustrated the design of Satan.
7 And it came to pass, after Jehovah had spoken these words to Job, that Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends: for ye have not spoken what is correct in reference to Me, as My servant Job.
In order that they may only maintain the justice of God, they have condemned Job against their better knowledge and conscience; therefore they have abandoned truth in favour of the justice of God, – a defence which, as Job has told the friends, God abhors. Nevertheless He is willing to be gracious.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Vindication of Job. | B. C. 1520. |
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.
Job, in his discourses, had complained very much of the censures of his friends and their hard usage of him, and had appealed to God as Judge between him and them, and thought it hard that judgment was not immediately given upon the appeal. While God was catechising Job out of the whirlwind one would have thought that he only was in the wrong, and that the cause would certainly go against him; but here, to our great surprise, we find it quite otherwise, and the definitive sentence given in Job’s favour. Wherefore judge nothing before the time. Those who are truly righteous before God may have their righteousness clouded and eclipsed by great and uncommon afflictions, by the severe censures of men, by their own frailties and foolish passions, by the sharp reproofs of the word and conscience, and the deep humiliation of their own spirits under the sense of God’s terrors; and yet, in due time, these clouds shall all blow over, and God will bring forth their righteousness as the light and their judgment as the noon-day, Ps. xxxvii. 6. He cleared Job’s righteousness here, because he, like an honest man, held it fast and would not let it go. We have here,
I. Judgment given against Job’s three friends, upon the controversy between them and Job. Elihu is not censured here, for he distinguished himself from the rest in the management of the dispute, and acted, not as a party, but as a moderator; and moderation will have its praise with God, whether it have with men or no. In the judgment here given Job is magnified and his three friends are mortified. While we were examining the discourses on both sides we could not discern, and therefore durst not determine, who was in the right; something of truth we thought they both had on their side, but we could not cleave the hair between them; nor would we, for all the world, have had to give the decisive sentence upon the case, lest we should have determined wrong. But it is well that the judgment is the Lord’s, and we are sure that his judgment is according to truth; to it we will refer ourselves, and by it we will abide. Now, in the judgment here given,
1. Job is greatly magnified and comes off with honour. He was but one against three, a beggar now against three princes, and yet, having God on his side, he needed not fear the result, though thousands set themselves against him. Observe here, (1.) When God appeared for him: After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, v. 7. After he had convinced and humbled him, and brought him to repentance for what he had said amiss, then he owned him in what he had said well, comforted him, and put honour upon him; not till then: for we are not ready for God’s approbation till we judge and condemn ourselves; but then he thus pleaded his cause, for he that has torn will heal us, he that has smitten will bind us. The Comforter shall convince, John xvi. 8. See in what method we are to expect divine acceptance; we must first be humbled under divine rebukes. After God, by speaking these words, had caused grief, he returned and had compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies; for he will not contend for ever, but will debate in measure, and stay his rough wind in the day of his east wind. Now that Job had humbled himself God exalted him. True penitents shall find favour with God, and what they have said and done amiss shall no more be mentioned against them. Then God is well pleased with us when we are brought to abhor ourselves. (2.) How he appeared for him. It is taken for granted that all his offences are forgiven; for if he be dignified, as we find he is here, no doubt he is justified. Job had sometimes intimated, with great assurance, that God would clear him at last, and he was not made ashamed of the hope. [1.] God calls him again and again his servant Job, four times in Job 42:7; Job 42:8, and he seems to take a pleasure in calling him so, as before his troubles (ch. i. 8), “Hast thou considered my servant Job? Though he is poor and despised, he is my servant notwithstanding, and as dear to me as when he was in prosperity. Though he has his faults, and has appeared to be a man subject to like passions as others, though he has contended with me, has gone about to disannul my judgment, and has darkened counsel by words without knowledge, yet he sees his error and retracts it, and therefore he is my servant Job still.” If we still hold fast the integrity and fidelity of servants to God, as Job did, though we may for a time be deprived of the credit and comfort of the relation, we shall be restored to it at last, as he was. The devil had undertaken to prove Job a hypocrite, and his three friends had condemned him as a wicked man; but God will acknowledge those whom he accepts, and will not suffer them to be run down by the malice of hell or earth. If God says, Well done, good and faithful servant, it is of little consequence who says otherwise. [2.] He owns that he had spoken of him the thing that was right, beyond what his antagonists had done. He had given a much better and truer account of the divine Providence than they had done. They had wronged God by making prosperity a mark of the true church and affliction a certain indication of God’s wrath; but Job had done him right by maintaining that God’s love and hatred are to be judged of by what is in men, not by what is before them, Eccl. ix. 1. Observe, First, Those do the most justice to God and his providence who have an eye to the rewards and punishments of another world more than to those of this, and with the prospect of those solve the difficulties of the present administration. Job had referred things to the future judgment, and the future state, more than his friends had done, and therefore he spoke of God that which was right, better than his friends had done. Secondly, Though Job had spoken some things amiss, even concerning God, whom he made too bold with, yet he is commended for what he spoke that was right. We must not only not reject that which is true and good, but must not deny it its due praise, though there appear in it a mixture of human frailty and infirmity. Thirdly, Job was in the right, and his friends were in the wrong, and yet he was in pain and they were at ease–a plain evidence that we cannot judge of men and their sentiments by looking in their faces or purses. He only can do it infallibly who sees men’s hearts. [3.] He will pass his word for Job that, notwithstanding all the wrong his friends had done him, he is so good a man, and of such a humble, tender, forgiving spirit, that he will very readily pray for them, and use his interest in heaven on their behalf: “My servant Job will pray for you. I know he will. I have pardoned him, and he has the comfort of pardon, and therefore he will pardon you.” [4.] He appoints him to be the priest of this congregation, and promises to accept him and his mediation for his friends. “Take your sacrifices to my servant Job, for him will I accept.” Those whom God washes from their sins he makes to himself kings and priests. True penitents shall not only find favour as petitioners for themselves, but be accepted as intercessors for others also. It was a great honour that God hereby put upon Job, in appointing him to offer sacrifice for his friends, as formerly he used to do for his own children, ch. i. 5. And a happy presage it was of his restoration to his prosperity again, and indeed a good step towards it, that he was thus restored to the priesthood. Thus he became a type of Christ, through whom alone we and our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God; see 1 Pet. ii. 5. “Go to my servant Job, to my servant Jesus” (from whom for a time he hid his face), “put your sacrifices into his hand, make use of him as your Advocate, for him will I accept, but, out of him, you must expect to be dealt with according to your folly.” And, as Job prayed and offered sacrifice for those that had grieved and wounded his spirit, so Christ prayed and died for his persecutors, and ever lives making intercession for the transgressors.
2. Job’s friends are greatly mortified, and come off with disgrace. They were good men and belonged to God, and therefore he would not let them lie still in their mistake any more than Job, but, having humbled him by a discourse out of the whirlwind, he takes another course to humble them. Job, who was dearest to him, was first chidden, but the rest in their turn. When they heard Job talked to, it is probable, they flattered themselves with a conceit that they were in the right and Job was in all the fault, but God soon took them to task, and made them know the contrary. In most disputes and controversies there is something amiss on both sides, either in the merits of the cause or in the management, if not in both; and it is fit that both sides should be told of it, and made to see their errors. God addresses this to Eliphaz, not only as the senior, but as the ringleader in the attack made upon Job. Now, (1.) God tells them plainly that they had not spoken of him the thing that was right, like Job, that is, they had censured and condemned Job upon a false hypothesis, had represented God fighting against Job as an enemy when really he was only trying him as a friend, and this was not right. Those do not say well of God who represent his fatherly chastisements of his own children as judicial punishments and who cut them off from his favour upon the account of them. Note, It is a dangerous thing to judge uncharitably of the spiritual and eternal state of others, for in so doing we may perhaps condemn those whom God has accepted, which is a great provocation to him; it is offending his little ones, and he takes himself to be wronged in all the wrongs that are done to them. (2.) He assures them he was angry with them: My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends. God is very angry with those who despise and reproach their brethren, who triumph over them, and judge hardly of them, either for their calamities or for their infirmities. Though they were wise and good men, yet, when they spoke amiss, God was angry with them and let them know that he was. (3.) He requires from them a sacrifice, to make atonement for what they had said amiss. They must bring each of them seven bullocks, and each of them seven rams, to be offered up to God for a burnt-offering; for it should seem that, before the law of Moses, all sacrifices, even those of atonement, were wholly burnt, and therefore were so called. They thought they had spoken wonderfully well, and that God was beholden to them for pleading his cause and owed them a good reward for it; but they are told that, on the contrary, he is displeased with them, requires from them a sacrifice, and threatens that, otherwise, he will deal with them after their folly. God is often angry at that in us which we are ourselves proud of and sees much amiss in that which we think was done well. (4.) He orders them to go to Job, and beg of him to offer their sacrifices, and pray for them, otherwise they should not be accepted. By this God designed, [1.] To humble them and lay them low. They thought that they only were the favourites of Heaven, and that Job had no interest there; but God gives them to understand that he had a better interest there than they had, and stood fairer for God’s acceptance than they did. The day may come when those who despise and censure God’s people will court their favour, and be made to know that God has loved them, Rev. iii. 9. The foolish virgins will beg oil of the wise. [2.] To oblige them to make their peace with Job, as the condition of their making their peace with God. If thy brother has aught against thee (as Job had a great deal against them), first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Satisfaction must first be made for wrong done, according as the nature of the thing requires, before we can hope to obtain from God the forgiveness of sin. See how thoroughly God espoused the cause of his servant Job and engaged in it. God will not be reconciled to those that have offended Job till they have first begged his pardon and he be reconciled to them. Job and his friends had differed in their opinion about many things, and had been too keen in their reflections one upon another, but now they were to be made friends; in order to that, they are not to argue the matter over again and try to give it a new turn (that might be endless), but they must agree in a sacrifice and a prayer, and that must reconcile them: they must unite in affection and devotion when they could not concur in the same sentiments. Those who differ in judgments about minor things are yet one in Christ the great sacrifice, and meet at the same throne of grace, and therefore ought to love and bear with one another. Once more, observe, When God was angry with Job’s friends, he did himself put them in a way to make their peace with him. Our quarrels with God always begin on our part, but the reconciliation begins on his.
II. The acquiescence of Job’s friends in this judgment given, v. 9. They were good men, and, as soon as they understood what the mind of the Lord was, they did as he commanded them, and that speedily and without gainsaying, though it was against the grain to flesh and blood to court him thus whom they had condemned. Note, Those who would be reconciled to God must carefully use the prescribed means and methods of reconciliation. Peace with God is to be had only in his own way and upon his own terms, and they will never seem hard to those who know how to value the privilege, but they will be glad of it upon any terms, though ever so humbling. Job’s friends had all joined in accusing Job, and now they join in begging his pardon. Those that have sinned together should repent together. Those that appeal to God, as both Job and his friends had often done, must resolve to stand by his award, whether pleasing or unpleasing to their own mind. And those that conscientiously observe God’s commands need not doubt of his favour: The Lord also accepted Job, and his friends in answer to his prayer. It is not said, He accepted them (though that is implied), but, He accepted Job for them; so he has made us accepted in the beloved,Eph 1:6; Mat 3:17. Job did not insult over his friends upon the testimony God had given concerning him, and the submission they were obliged to make to him; but, God being graciously reconciled to him, he was easily reconciled to them, and then God accepted him. This is that which we should aim at in all our prayers and services, to be accepted of the Lord; this must be the summit of our ambition, not to have praise of men, but to please God.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 7-17:
Verse 7 relates that after Job repented of his wrong attitude toward God regarding his suffering, he was then declared to have spoken “that which was right” toward the Lord. Then the Lord spoke a direct reprimand to Eliphaz the Temanite, that His wrath was kindled, ready to burn in direct judgment against both him and his two friends who had “parroted,” or mimicked him in speaking wicked, false, or untrue things against Job. This they had done by lying, claiming they were speaking for God, in saying things He had not approved. They charged that Job was afflicted because he was a lying thief, who had gotten gain by mistreating the poor and stealing his wealth from widows.
They further charged him with being a sneaking hypocrite who suffered because of great sins of immoral nature that he should confess to have his afflictions removed. God told Eliphaz that he, Bildad and Zophar had lied on both Him, in claiming that their words were from the Lord, and against Job, see Job 13:7; Job 13:10.
Verse 8 declares that God called on Eliphaz to take to himself to escape God’s “kindled wrath,” seven bullocks and seven rams, and go directly to God’s servant, Job, and offer up for him and his two lying prophet friends a burnt offering, in penitent’ acknowledgment of their sins, as later prescribed by the Laws of Moses, Num 23:1; 1Ch 15:21; Eze 14:23; Mat 5:24.
This sacrifice was made in patriarch days, before the law was given, Gen 20:17; This foreshadowed the true mediator, Jesus Christ, for the sins of all men, 1Ti 2:5. The Lord added that His servant Job, as an advocate would pray for (you all), for “him I will accept,” as a just and perfect or mature patriarch man, Jas 5:16; 1Jn 5:16; Job 22:30. The person must first be accepted, before his offering and work are acceptable, Gen 4:4. Job interceded for his fake-friends, his enemies, after he had made things personally right with God, even as our Lord directed his church to do, Mat 5:44, as Stephen did.
Verse 9 asserts that then, when directed, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, Job’s three tormenting friends from afar, did in accord with what the Lord in His wrath commanded them to do, Job 2:11. It is certified that the Lord also accepted Job, as he made intercession for his tormenting enemies, a foreshadow of what Jesus Christ later ordained for us, Mat 5:44; Luk 23:34; Act 7:60; Act 16:24; Act 16:28; Act 16:30-31.
Verse 10 relates that the Lord returned or restored the captivity, or removed the affliction from Job, and indemnified or repaid him for all that he had lost, “when he prayed for his friends.” He also gave to Job twice as much as he had before his affliction, Isa 40:2; Eze 16:53; Psa 14:7. This seems to be an earnest assurance of the restoration of man’s body, in the resurrection, as a vindication of ones trust in the Lord, without regards to human sufferings, Hos 6:11; Job 1:9-12; Rom 8:11. Note: Job’s recompense followed his praying for his enemies, even as our Lord did, in fulfillment of Isa 53:12. For the “testimony of Jesus is the spirit (dynamics) of prophecy,” Rev 19:10.
Verse 11 relates that then, when his afflictions were gone, and his health was restored, there came to him “all his brethren, and all his sisters,” and his former acquaintances before. And they ate bread or communed socially with him in his house, without fear, Job 19:13. His once estranged relatives and acquaintances returned, when his health and prosperity were returned by the Lord. Pro 14:10; Pro 19:6-7.
But the Lord does not desert the poor and the afflicted, tho earthly friends may. Pro 17:17; Pro 18:24. They “ate bread” again, in token of friendship, Psa 41:9. And they comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had sent, permitted Satan to inflict upon him, Job 2:5. Everyone also gave him a “piece of money” and an “earring of gold.” Presents are given in visiting a man of the East, after a calamity, especially to a man of rank, as Job had been, 2Ch 32:23. The gold earring was given both as a treasured ornament and because of its value, as most gold was held in some form of ornaments, before it was minted. It was usually worn in the nose or ear, Gen 35:4; Isa 3:21.
Verse 12 adds that the Lord blessed the latter end (days of life) of Job more than his beginning, with double-prosperity, Job 8:7; Jas 5:11. For he had, by increase, come to have 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen; and a thousand (1,000) she asses, Job 1:2-3. All were beasts of wealth and useful in the East.
Verse 13 adds further that he also had (thereafter) seven sons and three daughters, perhaps by a second wife, as his former unfaithful wife, who bitterly asked him to “curse God and die,” is never mentioned after Job 19:17, see also Job 29:9-10.
Verse 14 states the name of the first (daughter) was Jemima which means “daylight,” or hope, after his night calamity. The name of the second was Kezia or Cassia, an Aromatic herb, instead of stench from his sores and ulcers. And the name of the third daughter was Kerenhappuch which means “horn of stibiurn,” a paint females used to dye their eyelids, instead of Job’s horn defiled in the dust, Job 14:15. The names also signify the beauty of his daughters In his Divine restoration, blessings, as suggested Gen 4:25; Gen 5:29.
Verse 15 relates that in all the land of Job’s Arabic domain there existed no women fairer than the daughters of Job. It is added that their father also gave them “an inheritance among their brethren,” an unusual favor to daughters in the East, either among the Arabs or Jews. Under the Law, which was given later, daughters inherited properties, only if the father had no sons, Num 27:8; it was a proof of wealth and unanimity, or family unity.
Verse 16 states that Job lived after this, his restoration from the afflictions, for a time of 140 years and saw his sons and son’s sons, even four generations. The (LXX) Septuagint Indicates Job lived 170 years after his calamity and 10 children were born, v.13; and 240 years in all. This would make him 70 years of age at the time his calamity struck him, Job Ch. 1, taking the lives of all members of his first family.
Man’s life gradually shortened after the days of Terah, of Abraham’s lineage, who lived to be 205 years old, until in the days of David the normal span was considered to be 70 years, Psa 90:10. That Job saw his sons and his son’s sons, even four generations, even for four generations, is evidence of Divine favor, Gen 1:23; Psa 128:6; Pro 17:6. Where it is declared that “children’s children are the crown of old men.” See also Job 5:26; Pro 3:16.
Verse 17 concludes that Job died, being old and full of days, broken in body, Gen 25:8; Gen 35:24; Job 5:26; Psa 91:16. Thus ends the story of the triumph of “trust in God,” over the afflictions of the godly and the innocent, whatever those sufferings may be in this life, Job 2:10; 1Co 15:58; Pro 3:3-5; Gal 6:9; 2Ti 4:7-8. May each child of God accept human suffering in resignation to the will of God, without question as Job did, in life and in death. For victory comes to each one day, and restored prosperity, whether here or hereafter, Rev 2:10; Rev 22:12.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CARPET
(A beautiful parable in two parts)
By Anson G. Chester
Part I
Let us take to our heart a lesson; No lesson can braver be, From the ways of the tapestry weavers, On the other side of the sea.
Above their heads the pattern hangs, They study it with care, And while their fingers deftly move, Their eyes are fastened there.
They tell this curious thing besides
Of the patient, plodding weaver:
He works on the wrong side evermore, But works for the right side ever.
It is only when the weaver stops,
And the web is loosed and turned, That he sees his real handiwork, That his marvelous skill has learned.
Ah! The sight of its delicate beauty, it pays for all its cost, No rarer, daintier work than his, Was ever done by the frost.
Then the master bringeth him golden hire, And giveth him praise as well, And how happy the heart of the weaver is, No tongue but his own can tell.
Part II
The years of man are the looms of God, Let down from the place of the sun, Wherein we all are weaving, Till the mystic web is done.
Weaving blindly, but weaving surely, Each for himself his fate, We may not see how the right side looks, We can only weave and wait.
But looking above for the pattern, No weaver hath need to fear, Only let him look into Heaven, The Perfect Pattern is there.
It he keeps the face of the Saviour Forever and always in sight, His toll shall be sweeter than honey, And his weaving sure to be right.
And when his task is ended, And the web is turned and shown, He shall hear the voice of the Master, It will say to him, “Well, done!”
And the white-winged angels of Heaven, To bear him thence shall come down; And God shall give for his hire -Not golden coin, but a Crown.
1Co 15:58; Gal 6:9; Rev 2:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
VII. RECONCILIATION AND RENEWAL (Job. 42:7-17)
A.
ELIPHAZ MAKES A GREAT BURNT-OFFERING AND JOB INTERCEDES FOR HIS FRIENDS. (Job. 42:7-9)
TEXT 42:79
7 And it was so, that, after Jehovah had spoken these words unto Job, Jehovah 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 Now therefore, take unto you seven bollocks 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, that I deal not with you after your folly; for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as Jehovah commanded them: and Jehovah accepted Job.
COMMENT 42:79
Job. 42:7Now Yahweh turns to Eliphaz and declares that He is disturbed that they have all along misrepresented Him.[406] They have distorted the will of God in their counsel to Job. Yet they uttered each word as though it had been directly authorized by Him1Sa. 23:23. Job himself had accused them of lying in order to defend GodJob. 13:4; Job. 13:7-11. Job is surely vindicated now. God has not only broken His silence; He has condemned Jobs adversaries. The integrity of Gods impatient protester has now been rewarded. He has also judged pious hypocrites, even those who pretend to speak for Him. What a lesson we must all learn! Twentieth century man needs as never before to know Jobs creator-redeemer. God in His mercy has bathed this tormented soul in the healing oils of love and forgiveness. My servant, so acclaimed in the beginning and in the end, has survived the temptations of suffering and pain. He has indeed been in the furnace of affliction.
[406] See I. G. Williams, You Have Not Spoken Truth of Me, Mystery and Irony in Job, Zeitschriftfur alttestamentlische Wissenschaft, 1971, pp. 231255.
Job. 42:8This is an enormous sacrificeNum. 23:1 ff, indicating a grave matter. Vicarious atonement is imperative for wholenessLev. 4:1 ff. Intercessory prayer is a mighty force throughout the scripturesGen. 18:23 ff; Exo. 8:30; Exo. 32:11 ff; Deu. 9:20; Isa. 53:12; Jer. 37:3; and Amo. 7:2 ff. Yahweh tells them to go to Job because, literally, his face I will lift up, i.e., acceptJob. 13:8. As Job is the offended party, he must intercedeJob. 22:30. The intercession is for their folly (Heb. nebalah)Gen. 34:7; Deu. 22:21; Jos. 7:15; and Jer. 29:23.
Job. 42:9Note that Elihu is not mentioned, in spite of the extensive materials in the Elihu speecheschapters 3237. Yahweh forgave them because of Jobs sacrifice and intercessory prayer on their behalf. His vicarious suffering approaches our Lords redemptive suffering as the Suffering ServantIsa. 52:13Isa. 53:12; Php. 2:5 ff. But suffering alone is not redemptive, as Dostoevsky assumed; only the suffering of our incarnate Lord and Master can redeem the fallen universeRomans 8; Revelation 21.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(7) And it was so.The verdict that is spoken against the friends of Job is based rather on the tone and spirit of what they have said than on any of their actual words, for many of these are conspicuous for their wisdom, truth, and beauty. But throughout they had been on the wrong side, and seemed to think that the cause of God had need to be upheld at all risks, and that it might even be required to tell lies for God (Job. 13:7); and it was this that provoked the Divine indignation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Historical Conclusion Epilogue. Job 42:7-17.
JEHOVAH’S ADDRESS TO ELIPHAZ AND HIS FRIENDS. Job 42:7-8.
7. The Lord (Jehovah) said to Eliphaz the Temanite, etc. While Job, penitent in dust and ashes, abhors himself, the three friends, we may imagine like the Pharisee contemplate themselves admiringly and Job’s repentance approvingly. The voice of God startles them from their self-complacency. That voice this time means them. They are the great offenders. They have not spoken to God that which is right. They have compromised the truth by maintaining one-sided dogma (Jesuit-like) for the glory of God. The self-righteousness with which they still tower above Job serves only to draw down the burning wrath of God.
The thing that is right This is to be understood as predicated not of the arguments and positions maintained by Job during the course of the debate, but of the twofold confession made by Job. (Job 40:4, and Job 42:2-6.) Aben Ezra rightly deemed that the commendation “pertains solely to the confession which Job had made unto God and the others had not.” The construction of (piel form) with , spoken concerning me, is precisely that which in the same verse is rendered spoken unto Job, and should have been translated similarly. Yet it is not to be overlooked that the best German exegetes agree in rendering the el, concerning; with exceptions, however, such as Rosenmuller, who follows the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac in reading el, before, in the presence of, and Arnheim and Gesenius, who translate elayi, unto me. Thus also Drusius, Fry, Coleman, Tayler Lewis. The Hebrew, we think, makes this clear: for it is not what Job said of God, but , unto or before (thus Noldius, p. 48) God, which he now commends. The word , nekonah, rendered right, means also that which stands fast, (Hitzig,) which agrees with the root idea of koun, “to be firm,” “to stand upright.” The same word is used of the day in Pro 4:18, and means, according to Gesenius, ( Thes., p. 667,) the stable (part) of the day “the meridian hour, when the sun seems to stand immovable on the height of the heaven.” True humility is the pedestal on which the maturest piety stands, and only can stand.
Delitzsch, with many others, renders the word nekonah, what is correct, and tamely interprets it to “consist of his having denied that affliction is always a punishment of sin, and his holding fast the consciousness of his innocence, without suffering himself to be persuaded of the opposite. That denial was correct, and this truthfulness was more precious to God than the untruthfulness of the friends who were zealous for the honour of God.”
My servant Job The honourable title he bore at the outset of his trial (Job 1:8) is now restored, and four times repeated as he comes forth from the ashes of repentance. The title was also conferred upon Moses (Num 12:7) and upon the Messiah. Isa 42:1; Isa 49:6; Isa 52:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job Vindicated and Restored to Prosperity
v. 7. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, v. 8. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, v. 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, v. 10. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, v. 11. Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters, v. 12. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, v. 13. He had also seven sons and three daughters, v. 14. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch, v. 15. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, v. 16. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his son’s sons, even four generations, v. 17. So Job died, being old and full of days,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Job 42:7. For ye have not spoken of me, &c. Mr. Peters has proved, beyond contradiction, that this is properly translated, ye have not spoken of me that which is right. See also Job 42:8 in which there is a repetition of the same declaration in express terms by God himself, that Eliphaz and his companions had not spoken of him the thing which was right, and that Job had. Now, it will be difficult to find any thing in their speeches which should make the difference here supposed, if we set aside the doctrine of a future state; for in this view the others would speak more worthily of God than Job, by endeavouring to vindicate his Providence in the exact distribution of good and evil here in this life. Whereas Job’s assertion, chap. Job 9:22. This is one thing, therefore I said it; he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked, (which is the argument upon which he all along insists,) would upon this supposition be directly charging God in the same reproachful terms which Achilles uses to Agamemnon in Homer; that with him,
u917? . Iliad. ix. 399 that he made no distinction between the good and bad, the coward and the brave; which, in a ruler, is an error that reflects both upon his wisdom and his justice. But now, take into the account the life to come, and the thing will appear in a quite contrary light; and we shall easily see the reason why God approves of the sentiments of Job, and condemns those of his friends. For, suppose the friends of Job to argue (as seems to be the general tendency of their reasoning) that the righteous are never afflicted without remedy here, nor the wicked prosperous upon the whole in this life, (which is a wrong representation of God’s Providence;) and Job to argue on the other hand, that the righteous are sometimes afflicted here, and that without remedy, but shall be rewarded in a life to come; and that the wicked prosper here, but shall be punished hereafter, which is the true representation of the divine proceedings; and here is a very apparent difference in the drift of the one’s discourse, and of the others; for Job, in this view, speaks worthily of God; the rest unworthily. The best moral argument which mankind have ever had to believe a life to come, is this which Job insists upon, that good and evil are for the most part dealt out here promiscuously. On the contrary, the topic urged by his friends, and which they push a great deal too far, that God rewards and punishes in this world, tends in its consequence (like that other opinion which was held by the stoics in after-times, that virtue is its own reward) to sap the very foundation of that proof which we have from reason, of another life. No wonder, therefore, that the sentiments of the one are approved, and those of the other condemned. And, taking the matter in this light, I am almost led to conclude, that as God bestowed upon Solomon all other temporal advantages in reward for his asking wisdom, so he restored Job to his temporal prosperity and happiness, and gave him a long enjoyment and increase of it, as a recompence for his having so well defended the doctrine of a future state. Peters.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
HISTORICAL CONCLUSION
Job 42:7-17
1. Glorious vindication of Job before his friends: Job 42:7-10
7And it was so, that, after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord saidto 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. 8Therefore 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.
2. The restoration of his former dignity and honor: Job 42:11-12.
11Then 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 ear-ring of gold. 12So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.
3. The doubling of his former prosperity in respect to his earthly possessions and his offspring: Job 42:12 b17
12b For he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. 13He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch. 15And in all the land were nowomen found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them an inheritance 16among their brethren. After this Job lived an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons sons, even four generations. 17So Job died being old and full of days.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The inward restoration of Job, his deliverance from the errors which had beclouded his heart and his knowledge, and his penitent submission under Gods righteous and gracious will, is immediately followed by his outward restoration and redemption, This comes to pass in immediate connection with the sharp rebuke which God visits upon them because of their unreasonably harsh condemnation of Job, and also in connection with the brotherly intercession which Job offers in their behalf, thus heaping coals of fire on their head. The brilliant vindication, which the sorely understood man thus enjoys, is accompanied by the not less brilliant restoration of his external prosperity, as the result of which he is permitted even in this life, sooner therefore and more gloriously than he had dared to hope, to behold God as his Redeemer, and to taste in all its fulness His rewarding grace and taste in all its fulness His rewarding grace and mercy. As this conclusion of the whole matter carries us back, in respect to the facts, to the Introduction (Job 1:1 seq.), so also does the external form of the introductory narrative here reappear; the lofty poetic style gives place again to simple prose, as the only medium suitable to the simple but weighty facts, in which the heros destiny is accomplished.
2. The vindication of Job, together with the divine rebuke of the three friends: Job 42:7-10. And it came to pass, after that Jehovah, etc. =, and so conjunctional, as in Lev 14:43. God addresses Eliphaz in particular, as the spokesman, and leader of the three, who shaped their opinions. For ye have not spoken of me that which is right, as my servant Job. signifies not that which is subjectively true, i.e., honest, upright (Ewald, Hirzel, Schlottmann), but that which is objectively true, right (directum), comp. the of the LXX.). In respect to this objective truth, pertaining to facts, the friends in their speeches had either erred or kept silence, inasmuch as they had persistently refused to recognize Jobs essential innocence, his freedom from sins of the graver sort, and had assiduously endeavored to brand him as a heinous sinner. Job, on the contrary, had maintained that which was objectively true, comparatively at least, and in substance, inasmuch as he had retained the consciousness of his innocence, and the sense of Gods nearness in the heat of his trials. God accordingly solemnly recognizes him as His servant (comp. Job 1:8; Job 2:3), and fulfils literally the wish uttered by Job (Job 16:21) that he would do justice to a man before God and his friends.
Job 42:8. And now take unto you seven bullocks and seven rams.The same kind and number of animals for sacrifice as in Num 23:1; comp. also the use of the number seven above in Job 1:2; and see Introd., 2, near the end. On , defectively written for , comp. Ewald, 15, b. , a burnt-offering for you, i, e., to atone for you; comp. Job 1:5.Only to him will I have regardlit. only ( , comp. Ewald, 356) his person will I lift up, will I regard favorably, comp. Gen 19:21. Jobs essential innocence, purity, and irreproachableness could not be more strongly declared and confirmed, in opposition to the petty suspicions of the friends than by thus commissioning him to be a priestly mediator and interceder in behalf of the three who had incurred the divine disfavor, and by thus directly verifying what Eliphaz had promised him in Job 22:30 (comp. also Abrahams intercession for Abimelech: Gen 20:7; Gen 20:17).That I visit not upon you the folly: lit. that I may not do (fulfil) for you folly, i.e. the punishment of your folly; here means reward, punishment of the folly, in like manner as or signifies the penalty of sin.For ye have not spoken in respect to me that which is right, like my servant Job.Some MSS. exhibit both here and in the 7th verse, where the same words occur, the reading: against my servant Job ( instead of ); and so the Sept. also here: . This change of the text is manifestly, however, an intentional correction in both cases.
Job 42:9. Then went Eliphaz, etc. The , which is wanting before , is supplied by some MSS., but without any necessity; see Ewald, 349 a, 2. [Schultens on the contents of the ver.stupenda conversio rerum!]
Job 42:10. And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job.Thus are Jobs past sufferings described, in accordance with the representation which he himself has often given of them as a state of captivity or imprisonment; comp. Job 7:12; Job 13:27, etc.; also the familiar Pauline expression: I, a prisoner in the Lord (Eph 3:1; Eph 4:1, etc.) Taken by itself, this phrase signifies neither here nor elsewhere, where it occurs (as in particular in the Messianic promises of many prophets) to turn the imprisonment of any one, but only to turn the turning, to cause an unfortunate turn of affairs to be succeeded by a fortunate one, which puts an end to the former. So Symmachus on this passage: ; and so also the remaining versions outside the Targum. It might therefore be translated: and Jehovah turned the misery of Job. When he prayed for his friends.So correctly Delitzsch, Dillmann, etc.not because he prayed (as commonly explained), or in return for his praying (Hirzel). For before can express only the idea of simultaneousness (while, during); and there is deep significance in the fact that the moment when his disease departs from him is the very moment when, as regards his friends, he completely forgives and forgets, notwithstanding they had so grievously injured him. The original text properly reads in the sing.: for his friend ( ), which sing., however, is to be understood generally, as in Job 16:21; comp. Job 12:4.And Jehovah increased all that Job had twofold;, comp. Isa 61:7, and the still stronger word (referring indeed to the eternal recompense hereafter) in Luk 18:30. The description which follows sets forth how this doubling of his former possessions (which of course is not to be pressed throughout with literal exactness) was carried out in detail.
3. The restoration and (partial) doubling of Jobs former prosperity (Job 42:11-17). Job 42:11 and Job 42:12 a narrate first of all the restoration of his former honor, authority and dignity.Then came there unto him all his brethren, etc.; all those persons accordingly, of whose cold, heartless withdrawal from him he had reason to complain so bitterly in his misery; comp. Job 19:13 seq. (from which passage also the term , used here, is derived).And they gave him each a kesita, and each a ring of gold.to wit, a ring for the ear or the nose (), which according to Exo 32:3 was a favorite ornament of both men and women; comp. Gen 24:22. The is a piece of gold of the patriarchal age, which, besides this passage, is mentioned only in Gen 33:19 and Jos 24:32, signifying according to the ancient Versions a lamb, but according to the later, and perhaps the better founded etymology a piece weighed out. Its value, it would seem, was four times that of the shekel (comp. Gen 33:19 with Job 23:10). At any rate it is a gold coin representing a higher value than the shekel of a later period, and hence not very accurately translated by Luther a beautiful groschen [nor with sufficient precision by E. V. a piece of money]. F. Mnters Prog. ber d. Kesitah (Copenhagen, 1824), in which a Cyprian coin, with a lamb engraved on it, is erroneously identified with the old Hebrew Kesitah, presents a view that is antiquated, and to be used only with caution. [Carey also favors the view that it was a weight in the form of a lamb, like the bulls heads of Egypt, and the lions and ducks of Nineveh. So also the Art. Money in Smiths Bib. Dic.], In respect to the custom of bestowing presents when making a visit (either of congratulation or condolence), comp. Winers Realwrterb. Art. Geschenke [Smiths Bib. Dic. Gifts].And Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning., the earlier, the later period; comp. Job 8:7.
Job 42:12 b17 describe the doubling of Jobs former earthly possessions, to wit, in cattle (comp. Job 42:12 b with Job 1:3), and also the restitution made to him in children.
Job 42:13. And there were to him seven sons and three daughters.In this respect accordingly there was no doubling; nevertheless according to the Old Testament view deceased children were not regarded as absolutely lost (see 2Sa 12:23), so that this new blessing of children which Job now enjoys is still to be regarded as signifying more than the simple restoration of the earlier good. The pausal form is not to be treated as an error of transcription for (Hirz., Olsh.), but with Ewald, 269, c, as an obsolete substantive , with an unaccented feminine ending.
Job 42:14. And the one they called [or, was called] Jemima, etc.The subject of is indefinite, one, they. The names here mentioned accordingly are not such as were given to the daughters by the father himself, but appellations which the people of their acquaintance bestowed upon them on account of their beauty. Of these three names seems to signify the dove, or pure as the dove (possibly the dove-eyed; comp. Son 1:15; Son 2:14; Son 4:1), unless we follow the ancient versions, and bring the word into connection with , days, Arab. , explaining it to mean pure, bright as the day (comp. Diana from dies). = cassia, is in any case fine as the essence of cassia, she who was as if woven out of the fragrance of cinnamon (Del., with a reference to Son 1:8). The third was called paint-horn, box of ointment, on account of her graceful nature and action, which served to heighten her natural beauty; hence the charming one, who spread her charm all about her. In respect to box, jar, comp. 1Sa 16:1; 1Sa 16:13. On the painting of oriental women, see 2Ki 9:30; Jer 4:30; Eze 23:40; also Rosenmller, Morgenland, IV. 269 seq.; Hartmann, Das Ideal weiblicher Schheit, p. 35 seq., 307 seq [Smiths Bib. Dic. Art. Paint].
Job 42:15. And their father gave to them their inheritance in the midst of their brethren.This act of Jobs, which was strictly at variance with the regulations of the Mosaic law (see Num 27:8 seq.), but which has its parallel in certain family customs of the Arabs, rather than in practices specifically Hebrew, was intended to make it possible for the daughters to continue to live among their brothers even after their marriage; it is mentioned accordingly as a sign of the brotherly and sisterly concord which prevailed among these later children of Job as among the earlier (comp. Job 1:4).The masc. endings are used in and (referring in each case to the daughters), as in Job 39:3.
Job 42:16. And Job lived after this a hundred and forty years.How long he had lived before this does not appear from what precedes. The LXX. arbitrarily represent him as being seventy years old at the time when his sore trial befals him, as is evident from their rendering of this passage: (so at least the Vatican text, while the Cod. Alex. and various other MSS. and Ed.s add an to the latter number, thus placing the in Jobs seventy-eighth year, and representing his entire age as being two hundred and forty-eight years). [As we do not know how old he was when his affliction came upon him, we cannot precisely determine the age at which he died; but as he had previously to his affliction a family of ten children all grown up, he could not have been less than sixty or seventy years. And as in other respects God gave him twice as much as he had before, so perhaps also in this. The half, then, of one hundred and forty gives us seventy, and the two periods united make two hundred and ten, an age which unquestionably places Job in patriarchal times. Carey].And saw his children, and childrens children, through four generations.Instead of the Kri exhibits the unusual form , preferred probably on account of its fuller musical tone (comp. 1Sa 17:42; Eze 18:14). As parallels in thought, comp. Gen 1:23; Pro 17:6; Psa 128:6; Tob. 9:11.
Job 42:17. And Job died old and sated with life.The same formula is found in Genesis in recording the end of Abrahams life, and of Isaacs (Gen 25:8; Gen 35:29). Delitzsch strikingly: The style of primeval history, which we here everywhere recognize, is retained to the last words.
4. The Alexandrian Version presents after Job 42:17 the following long addition (see the same in the original, together with the more important variations in Stier and Theiles Polyglotten-Bibel, III. 1, 604 seq.): It is written however that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. This man [Job] is described in [lit., interpreted out of] the Syriac Book [Bible] (i.e., is described according to the account of the Hebrew Holy Scripture3) as living in the land of Ausis [Uz], on the borders of Idumea and Arabia; but his name before was Jobab. And he took an Arabian wife, and begat a son whose name was Ennon. But he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha (Bozra), so that he was the fifth from Abraham. And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, over which land he also ruled; first, Balac, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dennaba (Dinhaba); but after Balac Jobab, who is called Job; and after him Asom (Chusham), who was governor out of the country of Thman; and after him Adad (Hadad), the son of Barad, who destroyed Midian in the plain of Moab; and the name of his city was Gethaim. And the friends who came to him were Eliphaz, a son of Sophan, of the sons of Esau, king of the Themanites; Bildad, son of Ammon, the son of Chobar, sovereign of the Sauchans (Shuhites), Sophar, king of the Minans (Naamites). Theman, son of Eliphaz, ruler of Idumea. This one is described by [interpreted out of] the Syrian [i.e., Hebrew] Bible, as living in the land of Ausis [Uz], on the borders of the Euphrates; but his name aforetime was Jobab; but his father was Zareth, from the rising of the sun (the East).
Here evidently we have to do with an interpolation, compiled with a good deal of confusion and recklessness out of the statements of our book and those of Genesis 36. (especially Gen 42:10; Gen 42:15; Gen 42:32-36), either by Hellenistic Jews, or possibly even by Christian hands (as Hirzel infers from the allusion to the resurrection in the introductory words). No sort of value attaches to it, and it was rejected accordingly even by Origen (Ep. ad. African.) and Jerome. Neither was it introduced into the Greek versions of Aquila and Symmachus, nor into that of Theodotion except in part, and so it has always been excluded from the authorized Latin version of the Bible.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
It has been justly remarked (Del. II. 392) that a New Testament writer would have closed our book in some other way than with the recital of an abundant temporal recompense, such as finally befel the great sufferer, of an earthly restoration and an indemnification in material possessions, and the prolongation of his life on earth; for it is certainly true that the New Testament regards the recompense of affliction and sore tribulations as belonging to the hereafter, and always points those who suffer for Christ and the Gospel to a future reward in heaven (comp. Mat 5:3; Mat 5:10-12; Mat 19:29; Mar 10:29-30; Rev 7:14, etc. It would, however, be a one-sided inference from the conclusion of the book as it stands to regard it as ministering to an external, abstract, temporal theory of retribution. Just as decidedly to be rejected as one-sided is the theory adopted by several modern expositors (comp. Introd. 4 a), that the purpose of the book is just the opposite, to controvertnamely, the Mosaic theory of retribution, and that the contents of the epilogue, for that reason, contradict the poem proper, and that the genuineness and authenticity of the former are accordingly to be questioned (Introd. 8). That Job, after enduring to the end a trial of suffering of inexpressible severity should be rewarded with prosperity in this life, that he should not only receive a most brilliant vindication, and be again honored, but also be most abundantly indemnified, this is, first of all, a feature of the book which is characteristic of the Israelitish nationality, which is in harmony with the spirit of the Old Testament people of God (a feature which may be compared with that truly German depth of feeling and freshness of life which is impressed on the well-known bright conclusion of the Gudrun). It is in the next place a feature which harmonizes with the spirit of the Old Testament revelation itself, which is most deeply grounded in that revelation, in which the faith of believers before the coming of Christ in the unchangeable wisdom and righteousness of Gods dealings, found one of its most glorious witnesses. This close of the narrative, indeed, has nothing to say of that which took place in heaven after Jobs victorious struggle of faith; neither does it undertake to furnish any prophetic descriptions of Jobs own entrance into the communion of the holy and the blessed in the life beyond. All the more fresh and true to nature, however, are the colors with which it pictures the restored earthly prosperity of the sufferer, and it visibly refrains from causing the wishes and hopes which Job had frequently uttered (especially in chaps. 17 and 19) for a vindication from God in the future life to be transcendently surpassed and eclipsed by the splendor of that which in part he enjoyed here on earth. Without this conclusion, the hearts need of Old Testament believers would have found no true satisfaction; the issue of the conflict of doubt, excited by the peculiarly severe and hard to be understood visitation of Job, would have remained more or less undecided; those children of God who were limited to the anticipatory and typical fides Veteris Testamenti would not have been able to derive from the book perfect and true consolation. Nevertheless it remains no less true that the consolation ministered by the book, according to its inmost essence, is not different from the consolation of the children of God under the New Testament. The Book of Job is a genuine Cross and Comfort Book for us who are Christians, as well as for Old Testament believers, as surely as that it teaches unconditional submission to Gods holy will, and childlike resignation to His merciful Fatherly love as the only true source of religious blessedness and real peace of soul, and presents in Job the example of a sufferer, whose suffering has a twofold aim, on the one side to prove his innocence, on the other to tempt, i.e., to reveal his inmost secret sinfulness, who accordingly has a twofold typical significance as sufferer, being typical of Christ, who through suffering was perfected as Mediator and High-Priest of the New Covenant, and typical also of Christians, whose sufferings, like those of Job, ever present the double aspect of probational and castigational visitations of God.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
In the homiletic treatment of the epilogue, special attention should be devoted to the thought last emphasized, to wit, the character of Jobs suffering, as intended both for probation, and also for chastisement or purification. The most suitable opportunity for presenting this thought will be in connection with the rebuke of the friends, which Jehovah proceeds to administer immediately after that true and complete repentance has been wrought in Job (Job 42:7-10). For it is at this point that Jobs comparative innocence is definitely declared on the one hand, at the same time that it is only where Job has been humbled in sincere heartfelt penitence, that he is solemnly pronounced righteous by God,nay morethat it is only when in fervent brotherly love he intercedes for his opponents that his bodily suffering is removed (see on Job 42:10), wherein it is most clearly intimated that sin is to be included as one cause of his suffering. It is t this description of Jobs justification, which furnishes occasion for a concise recapitulation of the fundamental ideas of the whole dialogue, (especially of the discourses of Elihu and of God), that the practical expositor should most of all give his attention, while what is said concerning the restitution and doubling of Jobs external possessions need occupy only a secondary place.
Particular Passages
Job 42:7 seq. Brentius: The three friends spoke ill, Job well; while at the same time Job argued ill, the friends well. For the friends thought wickedly, when from the affliction they decided that God was angry, and Job wicked, although they discourse excellently concerning the omnipotence and wisdom of God. Job on the other hand speaks well when he continually affirms that afflictions had befallen him not because he had deserved them, and that they were not evidences of his wickedness, and of an angry God. But he speaks ill when he impugns Gods decree, and blasphemes God. Now since Job has a good cause as against the friends, although he sins in the management of his cause, while the friends are at fault touching the merits of his cause, the Lord pronounces sentence for Job against the friends; for He had previously rebuked his blasphemies.V. Gerlach: Inasmuch as Job, although guilty of speaking foolishly, nevertheless gave utterance to his sense of the contradiction which tortured him, in that he retained the consciousness of his fellowship with God in the midst of his feeling of Gods wrath, he was nearer the solution of the enigma than the friends.
Job 42:10 seq. Brentius: You now see by the fact itself what is the issue of trial; for God inflicts nothing on any one in order that He may destroy him, but that He may restore much more; Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, etc. (Jam 5:11).Starke: God causes the temptation of His saints to work a good end (1Co 10:13); He lays a burden on us, but He helps us again, (Psa 66:10 seq.; Psa 68:20). After the trial comes the revival; after the cry of distress the gracious hearing; after the sowing in tears the reaping in joy (Psalms 126.; Tob. 3:22) (on Job 42:11); As the swallows depart before the winter, but return again with the summer, so is it with the friendship of men. When tribulation has been endured to the end, and when days of prosperity and abundance of riches return, friends immediately make their appearance (Sir 6:8; Sir 12:8 seq.).V. Gerlach: It was necessary that Job should be purified inwardly from a mercenary spirit, from self-righteousness, and selfishness in its more refined forms. This having been accomplished, he now appears in possession of honor and riches, a conspicuous memorial of Gods recompensing love, recognizing all that he receives and enjoys as from God, and honoring Him far above His gifts. His life accordingly ends, having received its full completion; there remains in it nothing more that is obscure or inexplicable; it is full of promise for all Gods struggling ones under the Old Dispensation; it is a type of the Perfectly Holy One, who humbled Himself to the death of the Cross, who, although a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and who has therefore received a name which is above every namethat Jesus Christ may be Lord to the glory of God the Father.
AMEN
Footnotes:
[3]We find a help to the right explanation of the singular words (sc. ) in a remark of Olympiodorus in the Catena Patr. Grc. in l. Job, coll. Niceta, Lond., Job 1637: . From this it appears that refers not so much to the book of Job (Ddlm.), but also to the person of the hero, and that is used in the sense of being related, or described by.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
(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.
Observe how this is worded. The LORD doth not give sentence against those three men, until that he had first spoken to his servant Job: but, after that the LORD had brought Job into the state the LORD had intended, then, and not before, he proceeds to the reproof of Job’s three friends. So that Job was cleared from hypocrisy though found in sin; and the LORD acknowledged him for his servant. Sweet consideration! though, as Elias was, a man of like passions, yet accepted in JESUS.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Exaltation and Death of Job
Job 42:7-17
How God rebukes the wisdom of the wise! How God humiliates the very men who supposed that they were defending and glorifying him! How even Christian ministers may misrepresent God! We may be talking about religion without being religious. These are the thoughts which are excited by the circumstance that when all the comforters had exhausted their accusatory eloquence they had neither comforted Job nor pleased God. It is right The tone that is to comfort the world is not a tone of exasperation: when the world is really comforted in its inner heart it will be by music, by the singing of angels, by the reception of gospels, by communion with the loving God. How sad a thing is this, that men may suppose they are serving God at the very time they are angering him! How infinitely sad it is that a man may suppose he is preaching the gospel when he neither understands what he is saying nor feels it in all its pathos! Are there any critics so intolerable, so discouraging; to man, so unacceptable to God, as those who think they know all things, and can answer all questions, and rebuke all errors and infirmities, and sit in just judgment upon the whole race of mankind? They think they do God service; nay, they are sure of it; they affirm it with great emphasis; they suppose they are the men, and that wisdom will die with them: what if at the end they should argue themselves into a great divine wrath, and plunge themselves by their giddy logic into the very fire of divine judgment?
The three comforters surely spoke up for God nobly, with eloquence, and with great argumentative skill, and with signal critical ability; they did not hesitate to perform upon Job the whole process of vivisection; they were not kept back by any fear of wounding his feelings; they were exasperating preachers; they hurled at Job the largest missiles they could lift and throw: but where was their bowing down of heart, where their tender sympathy, where their desire to know the case in its reality and make the best of it? What if at the last the Christian preacher may have to apologise to the people whom he has been misleading for offering them false doctrine and false comfort! Did the comforters of Job ever say, Before we utter one word about this misery, let us pray? Was there any prayer in the whole process until Job began to pray at the end of the tumultuous colloquy? They began in high argument and in sonorous eloquence, and they hurled the commonplaces of their time at the wounded head of Job, but even Eliphaz the Temanite eldest, and in some respects best, of the comforters did not say, Let us put away all controversy, and come together in prayer without words that mute wrestling agony of the soul which God will understand and not pass by with neglect. What is this gospel we have to preach, and about which some people know everything, and know most about it when they are most ignorant of its spirit? The gospel is not a mechanical arrangement, it is not a new device in theological geometry; we cannot tell whence it cometh, whither it goeth, in many of its effects; we should always be right, however, when we proclaim this doctrine, namely “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is a sentence which admits of no amendment. We ought to be careful how we enlarge it, for it seems already to cover the very firmament and to flush the whole horizon with infinite and tender colour. What if it be our business to proclaim a gospel rather than explain it? What if there be no explanation of the gospel at all but a great deliverance of it a mighty, gracious, world-wide proclamation? It may come to pass that that may be the right thing after all. We get entangled amongst men’s explanations. Men sometimes contradict one another in the very act of explaining what they believe to be the truth. What if it be so arranged that all we have to do is to take up the great music and repeat it, saying, God is love: the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost: the Spirit and the bride say, Come; let him that heareth say, Come; and whosoever will let him come? These words may be so repeated as to affect the heart as no other words can ever affect it. The fussy, intrusive, self-laudatory, and self-trustful intellect, so-called, may force its way to the front and say, What do you mean by “come”? and we may think it reasonable that the question should be asked and that explanation should be given: thus we may alter the terms which God has imposed upon us; thus we may contract into a human argument what was meant to be an infinite revelation. Salvation can never be by argument; otherwise only they who are mentally gifted could be saved. How few there are who could follow an argument! How many there are who could accept an assurance, a gospel! The argument is for the trained, the skilled, the so-called wise; an argument is the very heaven of the wise man the man who is wise in letters and wise after the scale of this world’s wisdom: he says he loves to argue. The gospel is not a mere argument of a mechanical or formal kind; it is a declaration that when man lost himself and could not recover himself when there was no eye to pity and no arm to save, God’s eye pitied and God’s arm brought salvation; and if we trouble that revelation with little questions and criticisms, we may be pleasing our own intellectual vanity at the expense of losing the meaning of God’s love. Surely there was nothing wanting on the part of Eliphaz and his two friends in the way of argument, controversy: they stood up to the line well, they acted like skilled controversialists; no sooner did Job speak than they answered him with a multitude of hard words; and if words went for anything, truly they overpowered the poor sufferer with their rough and urgent eloquence. Yet all the time they were but exasperating the God they intended to serve. In all these great things let us pray, let us whisper, let us keep closely to the word as it is written for us, and nearer and nearer still to the gracious Son of God, and add no word to his, for our additions are subtractions, and our explanations do but mystify what might to our hearts in their sincerity and simplicity have been clear.
At the very last Job prayed for his friends. Even Job was wrong so long as he argued. Argument has done very little for the world. It has divided families; it has distracted individual minds; it has broken the devout attention which ought to have been fixed upon vital points; it has appeared to be doing great service when it was only hindering the highest and widest progress of the soul. We are receivers, not associates with God; we are to open our hearts to receive the rain of his truth and love and blessing, and let that rain percolate through the whole being, and then express itself when working in harmony with the life in all that is beauteous and fruitful. “The Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends,” as if to say, You are right; you have abandoned controversy, the clang and exchange of windy words; and you have begun to fall down at the altar, to clasp your hands and lift up your heart’s eyes to heaven, and to pray: now all is yours that is of the nature of blessing and comfort and restoration. Let us pray for one another. Many have heard of the patience of Job who seem not to have heard of his prayer. What is this prayer? Is it an attitude? Is it a series of words? No; it is a condition of soul: not a word may be spoken, yet the mind may be deeply involved in the sacred engagement of prayer: it is the expectancy of the heart; it is the look which cannot be turned aside that fixed, ardent, soul-gaze that means to take heaven captive. We do not pray when we use words; the fewer words we use the better: “When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” There is little or no speaking in words; there is but a hinting, a putting up of a sentence as a signal or an indication, a pointing to the blessing which the soul would like to possess. Thus all men can pray. A few only may be able to pray in audible sentences: but salvation is no more of rhetoric and grammar than it is of argument. We can pray always; it is a tear, a look, an ejaculation, a sigh; it is the very mystery of life. Let no man, therefore, say that he cannot pray simply because he has no gift of words. The less gift of words the better. Words have troubled the ages; words have hindered the truth. The true religious condition is a condition of heart, a quality of temper, spirit, disposition, union with the Son of God.
Some have thought that the after-life of Job was not sufficiently blessed considering all the process through which he passed. Have they sufficiently attended to the expressions which are used in this connection? Let us look at this one in particular: Job 42:7 , “my servant Job”; Job 42:8 , “my servant Job”; Job 42:8 , again, “my servant Job.” Who can tell how these words were said? They are attributed to the divine lips, and they are not to be read by us with all the fulness of their emphasis and signification. When the Lord said, again and again and again, “my servant Job,” who can tell what music was in his tone, what unction, what recognition, what benediction? The anthem closes upon its key-note: at the very first the Lord said “my servant Job”; at the end he says “my servant Job.” It is possible for us to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and merely to utter these as so many syllables more or less beautiful; but when Jesus Christ pronounces the very same syllables they will mean heaven. Words are not the same in different mouths. Some men have no gift of emphasis, no gift of expression; their words are dissociated, they are unrelated, they are cold, they are not fused by that mysterious power of sympathy and affection which runs them into consolidated beauty and blessing. When the Lord says “my servant Job” a word Job had not heard these many days he forgets his sorrow, and springs as Mary sprang when the supposed gardener addressed her by her name. There was a gardener’s way of speaking and a Christ’s way: when the Son of God said “Mary,” all the past came back instantly, and heaven came more than half-way down to inclose the resuscitated heart in its infinite security. There may, therefore, be a better ending than we had at first supposed. The chapter may not be wanting in the highest force of expression when we really look into its syllables, when we really listen to its palpitation.
“The Lord turned the captivity of Job” took off his fetters, his manacles, and the devil-forged chain that was cast about him, and gave him liberty. Do not ask a free man what liberty means: ask an emancipated slave. “The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” This expression “twice as much” is arithmetical, and is but symbolic; it is in no sense literal. “Twice as much” means a million times as much multiplied by itself again and again. When God gives, he gives good measure, heaped up, pressed down, running over: “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” So it may be with you, poor suffering friend: this is the month of trial, this is the year of testing, this is the period of affliction and baffling, of bewilderment and stupefaction: hold on; cease from mere argument in words; pray, look heavenward, hope steadfastly in the loving One, and at the end you shall have “twice as much” as God interprets the word “twice.”
“The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.” There is a “latter end.” By that all things must be judged. If you cut the life of Jesus in twain, you might accuse God of having exposed him to the utmost want, loneliness, and cruelty. We must not interfere with the divine punctuation of the literature of providence; we must allow God to put in all the secondary points, and not until he has put the full period may we venture to look upon what he has done and offer some judgment as to its scope and meaning. Let my latter end be like the good man’s! He dies well; he dies like a hero; he dies as if he meant to live again: this is not dying, it is but crossing a little stream, the narrow stream of death, a step, and it is passed, and is forgotten. “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” God may do much in one day; he may clear up all the mysteries of a lifetime by one flash of light. Judge nothing before the time. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame looking upon it as a necessary process, and regarding the end as the explanation of all that had gone before.
“In all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job.” In Old Testament times great truths had to be hinted by these outward manifestations or indications of the divine providence. God set beauty before the eyes of him who had suffered much, who had felt the burden of darkness. The name of the first was “Jemima,” from the Arabic, dove, gentle bird; or, from another origin, day, day-bright, the eye of the morning, the gleaming of a new dispensation. The name of the second, “Kezia” cassia, a fragrant spice. He who had sat long amidst pestilence and rotteness and decay and death, had cassia sent to him from the gardens above. “The name of the third, Kerenhappuch,” the horn of beauty, or the horn of plenty: a sign of abundance in the house. All the names were histories or commentaries or promises. Thus God blessed Job in a way Job could understand: he sent him back voices to sing in the house, and when the fair girls passed before him, tinted with the vermilion of nature, he said, This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, excellent in counsel, as well as wondrous in working. See God in your family, in that sleeping infant, in that opening mind, in those clinging hands, in those eyes that are quickened into the expression of prayer; see God in the fields, in the sheep, and the oxen, and all the great abundance which is round about.
“So Job died, being old and full of days.” We cannot tell what these words meant to an Old Testament mind. “Full of days.” They brought to him a sense of completeness. He was not satiated, but satisfied. He said, The circle is complete; I do not want another hour: now I have completed my career; praise God in eternity. All this was significant of the future. We have seen again and again how earthly things have been invested with religious meanings. Abraham was called to go out into a far country, and promised a land that flowed with milk and honey; and when he came near it he said I do not want this; I want a country out of sight, a heavenly Canaan, a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God: I am glad I was stirred up from my home, that I am come out, for travelling has done me good; but as the ground has enlarged and I have seen things more clearly in their right proportions and meanings, I do not want the earth; its rivers are too shallow, its oceans too small, its space is a prison: I want heaven. This comes of our training in things inferior and minor and preliminary, if we rightly accept that training. The man who starts with the promise that he shall have gold at the end, if that man should live well, and be industrious with a mind that is honest, when he comes to the gold he will say, There is something beyond this; I am thankful enough for it in the meantime, but is there not a fine gold, a gold twice refined? Is there not some spiritual reward? O clouds! open, and let me see what is above, for I feel that there, even in the great height, must be the gold that would satisfy me. I counsel thee to buy fine gold: seek wisdom; get understanding; for the merchandise of it is better than silver and better and richer than gold.
Then does Job simply die? The Hebrew ends here, but the Septuagint adds a very wonderful verse “And Job died, old and full of days; and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raiseth.” There needed some touch of immortality to complete the tragedy. Is there no immortality in the Old Testament? I hold that there is immortality in the very creation of man: to be a man is to be immortal. Where is it said, “The Lord made man rational”? any more than it is said, “God made man immortal”? Everything is said in this word “In the image of God created he him.” That is reason; that is responsibility; that is immortality; that is but minor divinity. Have we laid the right emphasis upon the word “man” when we read of his creation? It would be a most noticeable thing, amounting to a conviction of the righteousness and goodness of God, if the Gentiles knew the doctrine of immortality when the patriarchs and Jews had been denied the realisation of that opportunity. Long before Christ came, and in countries where the name of Christ had never been mentioned until within recent years, the doctrine of immortality was affirmed. Plato, the most spiritual of the philosophers, believed in life after death; Socrates with all his accumulated wisdom taught the doctrine of life after death; in the Indian philosophies we find the declaration of a belief in life after death: these Gentiles were groping in darkness, or in twilight at best: wondrous if Plato, Socrates, and some of the great heathen thinkers in other lands had discovered the doctrine of immortality which was hidden from the men who were specially chosen of God to be the custodians of the truth, the depositaries of the very principles of the Church. I take it therefore, rather, that the whole doctrine of immortality is assumed, as is the reason of man, as is the responsibility of man; that it is involved in the very constitution of man. It is not my belief that God made man mortal. He made man, as to his thought and purpose, immortal: for man was made in the image of his Maker. Whatever may have been the condition of Old Testament saints, there can be no doubt about the position of man now, for life and immortality have been brought to light in the gospel. Jesus Christ boldly proclaimed the great doctrine of life after death, and he brought life and immortality to light; he did not create a new epoch, introduce a new series of thoughts, but he threw light upon ancient obscurities, and showed what marvellous assumptions had underlain the whole scheme of history and providence. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” This is our joy supreme, triumphant joy. “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, and that which shall be left shall be immortality, which being interpreted from the standpoint of Christ’s cross means, not only longer life, but larger life, purer life, life consecrated to all high service, still finding its heaven in obedience, still finding its beginning and its ending in the eternal God.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Job 42:7 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].
Ver. 7. And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job ] And Job those other again to God, it soon repented the Lord concerning his servant. Pro magno delicto parum supplicii saris est patri, A little punishment is enough to a loving father for a great fault (Terent.). “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord, for (alas) they have received of my hand double for all their sins,” Isa 40:1-2 . So it seemed to him who is all heart, and who in all their afflictions is equally afflicted. God weeps on his people’s necks tears of compassion; they weep at God’s feet tears of compunction. Oh beautiful contention!
The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite
My wrath is kindled ayainst thee
And against thy two friends
Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox.
By the way observe, that although these three had offended more than Job, yet he was afflicted, and they escaped free. Judgment beginneth at God’s house; neither have any out of hell ever suffered more than those worthies of whom the world was not worthy, Heb 11:38
For ye have not spoken the thing that is right
As my servant Job hath
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
these words: i.e. ch. Job 38:1 — Job 41:34.
not spoken of Me the thing that is right. We have, therefore, an inspired record of what they said; but all they said was not inspired, and cannot be quoted as the Word of Jehovah.
as My servant Job hath: i.e. in Job 42:1-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 42:7
Job 42:7
THE EPILOGUE
“And it was so, that, after Jehovah had spoken these words to Job, Jehovah 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.”
What a shock such a declaration from God himself, speaking out of the whirlwind, must have been to Job’s three friends. That God completely ignored both Satan and Elihu is significant. That omission of any reference whatever to either Satan or Elihu, indicates the defeat and vanquishing of Satan and the strong implication that Elihu was, of all four instruments of Satan in their attack against Job, the most evil and the most offensive to God. It is extremely important that, when the friends were instructed on how they might be forgiven, Elihu was left out of it altogether.
Note here that only Eliphaz was called by name. This was probably due to the fact that he was the first to speak in each cycle of speeches; and that, from this, it is usually concluded that he was the oldest of the three.
“As my servant Job hath” (Job 42:7). This divine sanction of what Job had said about God should not be understood as an endorsement of everything that Job said. It should be applied to the principle issue in the argument, “Whether or not God always rewarded every man according to his conduct in this life, and that he did so at once, or immediately.” The three friends had adopted the false theory that one could indeed measure the righteousness of a person by the degree of his prosperity, which was essentially the proposition espoused by the devil himself, with the variation that the only reason prosperous men served God was that of assuring the continuation of their prosperity. On the basis of that false view, the three friends insisted that Job was a reprobate sinner. This Job vehemently denied, pointing out that the wicked often prospered; and it is primarily of that basic truth that God spoke in this verse.
“My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends” (Job 42:8). God’s anger was due to the consent of the three in becoming instruments of Satan in their efforts to force Job to renounce his integrity. If we may judge from the exceedingly large sacrifices that God required of each of them, God must have considered their sin to have been of the very greatest dimensions.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 42:7. The comments in the preceding paragraph are verified by this verse. God expressly said that Job had spoken the right words while the three friends had not, but instead they had kindled the wrath of God against themselves.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
VII. THE EPILOGUE: JOBS RESTORATION AND BLESSING
CHAPTER 42:7-17
1. Jehovahs message to Jobs friends (Job 42:7-9)
2. Jobs restoration (Job 42:10-15)
3. The conclusion: Peace (Job 42:16-17)
Job 42:7-9. Like the beginning of the book, the prologue, the epilogue is not in a poetic measure, but in prose. The Lord addresseth Eliphaz as the most prominent one of the three friends of Job. His wrath is kindled against the three. Though they had apparently stood up for Him and defended His character, yet under the searchlight of the Omniscient One, who searcheth the hearts of men, they are found wanting. The charges they had brought against his servant Job, were false. They had wickedly accused Job, whom He had declared to be a perfect and an upright man. In all their charges they had slandered God. Then the Lord said, for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. Here is a beautiful lesson. Job hath confessed and Jehovah hath forgiven. He forgets all Jobs sinful utterances; He remembers them no more. But in infinite grace He takes the few sentences scattered throughout Jobs speeches in which he honoured the Lord and expressed trust in Him and with these He is well pleased. It must have been a sweet music in Jehovahs ear when Job said, Though He slay me yet will I trust. And so He acknowledgeth Job as His servant. They must bring sacrifices–a burnt offering; and that blessedly shows us the cross.
And my Servant Job shall pray for you; for him I will accept. Sweet scene now as Job prays for his humbled friends. How it again reminds us of Him, who ever liveth and maketh intercession for His people. Him God hath accepted in His great sacrificial work on the cross, and we are accepted in Him.
So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them; and the Lord accepted Job. This is the last as to Jobs friends.
Job 42:10-15. And now Jobs restoration and double blessing. All his kinfolks return with all his acquaintances and sit down to a meal in sweet communion. What about his bodily disease? Nothing is said of that. But assuredly the Lord touched his suffering body, and He who spoke to the leper, must have spoken to Job, Be thou clean, and the loathsome disease vanished, and as Elihu had said, his flesh became like that of a young child. They also brought him money and rings of gold. They were not presents to enrich him, the Lord did that for Job, but simply to show how happy they were over Jobs healing and restoration.
All his wealth becomes twice as large as before. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. While his possessions are doubled, his sons and daughters are not. He gives him also seven sons and three daughters. This does not mean, as some suppose, that they were not new sons and daughters, but that the restoration is that in resurrection. Such a view is untenable. The sons and daughters were born to him. The names of the three daughters are given. Jemimah (a dove); Keziah (cassia); Keren-happuch (flashes of Glory). Such were the blessed results of Jobs experience, expressed by these names. Purified and humble like the dove; cassia, which is fragrance, worship and adoration; and the flashes and splendour of glory.
Job 42:16-17. We have reached the end. It is an end of peace, a perfect day. Four generations he beholds and at the ripe old age of 140 years he is gathered to his fathers. In consulting the Septuagint version we find a long addition to the last verse which begins with this statement: and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. Then follows Jobs genealogy. It is taken from some apocryphal writing but it shows that the hope of the resurrection of the body was believed in ancient days. Surely Job will be there, in that day and his great utterance, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and the hope of seeing Him will be realized.
Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy (Jam 5:11). And all His people know this matchless truth, that the Lord in all His dealings with His people is very pitiful and of tender mercy. In our annotations we have pointed out repeatedly the comparison of Job in his sufferings with the Lord, our Saviour, and His holy sufferings in the sinners place. It brings out the perfection of Him who is altogether lovely.
An application to Israel can also be made. If this is followed out it will prove of much interest. Israel, like Job, is suffering, self-righteous, but some day the nation will come face to face with Jehovah and be humbled in the dust. Then their restoration when they will receive double of the Lords hand for all their sins (Isa 11:2).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Eliphaz: Job 2:11, Job 4:1, Job 8:1, Job 11:1
My: Job 32:2, Job 32:3, Job 32:5
ye have: Job 11:5, Job 11:6, Psa 51:4
Reciprocal: Exo 32:30 – an atonement 1Sa 12:5 – The Lord Job 6:26 – reprove Job 10:7 – Thou knowest Job 13:2 – General Job 13:10 – reprove Job 15:1 – Eliphaz Job 17:10 – for I Job 18:1 – Bildad Job 21:27 – ye wrongfully Job 21:34 – seeing Job 27:5 – justify Job 34:37 – multiplieth Psa 106:33 – he spake Isa 54:17 – every Mar 14:6 – Let Joh 9:3 – Neither Rom 8:33 – Who 1Jo 5:16 – he shall ask
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 42:7. After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job Jehovah, having confounded all the false reasonings of Job, and sufficiently humbled his pride, now proceeds to the condemnation of the principle upon which his three friends had proceeded in all their speeches, which principle he declares not to be right. The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite God addresses him, because he was the eldest of the three, had spoken first, and by his example had led the rest into the same mistake which he himself had committed; My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends Elihu is not hre reproved, because he had dealt more mercifully with Job than these three had done, and had not condemned his person, but only rebuked his sinful expressions; for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right Because they had laid it down as a certain maxim, that all (without exception) who were afflicted with such grievous calamities as Job was, must needs be under the wrath of God, as being guilty of some notorious crime; and that all who passed through life in prosperity must needs be accounted as righteous in the sight of God: whereas God wills that we should know he does not judge of men according to their condition in this life, but according to their spirit and conduct; and should always be assured that he is averse to the wicked, however prosperous they may be, and always approves of and regards the righteous, whatever afflictions they may suffer; because the divine wisdom and goodness often see most wise reasons, which we cannot comprehend, why the righteous should struggle with adversities even all their life long, and the wicked have every outward and temporal good through the whole course of their lives. As my servant Job hath What Job said may be reduced to three principal heads: 1st, He maintained that he was innocent, that is, that he was guilty of no flagrant crime, which should be the cause of his being afflicted more grievously than others; and this was nothing more than the truth. 2d, He maintained that though God often inflicted exemplary punishment on the wicked, and remarkably prospered the righteous; yet sometimes he suffered the righteous to be in affliction and trouble, and the wicked to flourish; which cannot be denied to be often the case. 3d, We find Job, notwithstanding his great afflictions, still holding fast and professing his confidence in the divine goodness. These, then, being the assertions which Job had made, and these not being repugnant to, but according with, the ways of divine providence, God approved of them rather than of what his friends had advanced, who were in an error as to their notions of Gods counsels and dispensations. However, we are not to conclude from this expression that God approved of all that Job had said; for, without doubt, being too sensibly affected with the severity of his afflictions, particularly when the false and uncharitable surmises of his friends were added to them, he sometimes had spoken less reverently of God than he ought to have done, and for this the Lord had severely reproved him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
42:7 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] {f} right, as my servant {g} Job [hath].
(f) You took in hand an evil cause, in that you condemned him by his outward afflictions, and not comforted him with my mercies.
(g) Who had a good cause, but handled it evil.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
III. EPILOGUE 42:7-17
The book closes as it opened, with a prose explanation by the inspired human writer. He gave us important information about Job’s friends (Job 42:7-9) and then Job’s fortunes (Job 42:10-17).
". . . Satan and Job’s wife (who are prominent in the prologue as agents of evil who try to get Job to curse God) are intentionally omitted in the epilogue. This deliberate omission emphasizes a major teaching of the book, namely, that man’s relationship to God is not a ’give-and-get’ bargain nor a business contract of mutual benefit." [Note: Parsons, p. 142.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A. Job’s Friends 42:7-9
God addressed Eliphaz but also had Bildad and Zophar in view. He evidently excluded Elihu because he had not misrepresented God as the other three friends had. Their error was limiting God’s sovereignty. By asserting that God always punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous in this life, they were limiting God and committing a sin that required a sacrifice for atonement (covering). Modern prosperity theology advocates should take note!
Job evidently forgave his friends as God had forgiven him (cf. Mat 6:12), and prayed for them as a priest (cf. Job 1:5; Mat 5:44). Job stood as a mediator between his friends and God. He had previously felt the need of a mediator himself.
"They had attempted to restore Job to God by philosophy. He is now to be the means of restoring them by prayer." [Note: Morgan, pp. 219-20.]
Rather than judging Job, God accepted him because he was indeed His "servant," not the rebel that his friends accused him of being. The writer used the word "servant" four times in these verses. Job had served God, among other ways, by being the vehicle through whom God brought the revelation of this book to its readers.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XXIX.
EPILOGUE
Job 42:7-17
AFTER the argument of the Divine voice from the storm the epilogue is a surprise, and many have doubted whether it is in line with the rest of the work. Did Job need these multitudes of camels and sheep to supplement his new faith and his reconciliation to the Almighty will? Is there not something incongruous in the large award of temporal good, and even something unnecessary in the renewed honour among men? To us it seems that a good man will be satisfied with the favour and fellowship of a loving God. Yet, assuming that the conclusion is a part of the history on which the poem was founded, we can justify the blaze of splendour that bursts on Job after sorrow, instruction, and reconciliation.
Life only can reward life. That great principle was rudely shadowed forth in the old belief that God protects His servants even to a green old age. The poet of our book clearly apprehended the principle; it inspired his noblest flights. Up to the closing moment Job has lived strongly, alike in the mundane and the moral region. How is he to find continued life? The authors power could not pass the limits of the natural in order to promise a reward. Not yet was it possible, even for a great thinker, to affirm that continued fellowship with Eloah, that continued intellectual and spiritual energy which we name eternal life. A vision of it had come to him; he had seen the day of the Lord afar off, but dimly, by moments. To carry a life into it was beyond his power. Sheol made nothing perfect; and beyond Sheol no prophet eye had ever travelled.
There was nothing for it, then, but to use the history as it stood, adding symbolic touches, and show the restored life in development on earth, more powerful than ever, more esteemed, more richly endowed for good action. In one point the symbolism is very significant. Priestly office and power are given to Job; his sacrifice and intercession mediate between the friends who traduced him and Eloah who hears His faithful servants prayer. The epilogue, as a parable of the reward of faithfulness, has deep and abiding truth. Wider opportunity of service, more cordial esteem and affection, the highest office that man can bear, these are the reward of Job; and with the terms of the symbolism we shall not quarrel who have heard the Lord say: “Well done, thou good servant, because thou wast found faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities!”
Another indication of purpose must not be overlooked. It may be said that Jobs renewal in soul should have been enough for him, that he might have spent humbly what remained of life, at peace with men, in submission to God. But our author was animated by the Hebrew realism, that healthy belief in life as the gift of God, which kept him always clear on the one hand of Greek fatalism, on the other of Oriental asceticism. This strong faith in life might well lead him into the details of sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, flocks, tribute, and years of honour. Nor did he care at the end though any one said that after all the Adversary was right. He had to show expanding life as Gods recompense of faithfulness. Satan has long ago disappeared from the drama; and in any case the epilogue is chiefly a parable. It is, however, a parable involving, as our Lords parables always involve, the sound view of mans existence, neither that of Prometheus on the rock nor of the grim anchorite in the Egyptian cave.
The writers finest things came to him by flashes. When he reached the close of his book he was not able to make a tragedy and leave his readers rapt above the world. No pre-Christian thinker could have bound together the gleams of truth in a vision of the spirits undying nature and immortal youth. But Job must find restored power and energy; and the close had to come, as it does, in the time sphere. We can bear to see a soul go forth naked, driven, tormented; we can bear to see the great good life pass from the scaffold or the fire, because we see God meeting it in the heaven. But we have seen Christ.
A third point is that for dramatic completeness the action had to bring Job to full acquittal in view of his friends. Nothing less will satisfy the sense of poetic justice which rules the whole work.
Finally, a biographical reminiscence may have given colour to the epilogue. If, as we have supposed, the author was once a man of substance and power in Israel, and, reduced to poverty in the time of the Assyrian conquest, found himself an exile in Arabia-the wistful sense of impotence in the world must have touched all his thinking. Perhaps he could not expect for himself renewed power and place; perhaps he had regretfully to confess a want of faithfulness in his own past. All the more might he incline to bring his great work to a close with a testimony to the worth and design of the earthly gifts of God, the temporal life which He appoints to man, that present discipline most graciously adapted to our present powers and yet full of preparation for a higher evolution, the life not seen, eternal in the heavens.