Job
Chapter 42
Job’s Response to the Lord
This was the answer Job gave to the Lord:
I know that you are all-powerful; no plan of yours can be thwarted.
“Who is this who obscures counsel with ignorance?” I spoke of things I did not understand, too wonderful for me to know.
“Listen, and I will speak; I will question you, and you tell me the answers.”
My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I retract all I have said, and in dust and ashes, I repent.
Epilogue
After the Lord spoke to Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said: “I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me rightly, as my servant Job has.
Now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, offer a burnt offering for yourselves, and let him pray for you. I will accept his prayer and forgive your mistake in not speaking of me correctly, as my servant Job has done.”
Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had commanded. The Lord accepted Job’s intercession.
After Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes, giving him twice as much as he had before.
All his brothers and sisters and his former friends came to his house and dined with him. They showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Each of them gave him a silver coin and a gold ring.
The Lord blessed Job’s later years much more than his earlier ones. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.
He was also blessed with seven sons and three daughters.
The first daughter he named Dove, the second Cinnamon, and the third Bottle of Perfume.
Throughout the land, no woman could compare in beauty to Job’s daughters. Their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
He died old and full of years.
Commentaries
Discourses of the Lord.
The Lord has been listening and taking note (35:13); now he speaks. Job’s friends thought there was no need for God to speak. Job, on the other hand, did; he has asked him for either a list of charges or a verdict. Everyone is surprised. The Lord enters the debate as one more participant and responds with two speeches (38:1-40:2; 40:6-41:26), to which Job, in turn, will react briefly with two others (40:3-5; 42:1-6). The Lord does not answer any of the questions raised; in fact, his words offer only a series of counter-questions intended to bring Job out of his narrow perspective and open him up to a broader horizon.
Job’s Response to the Lord.
Finally, Job recognizes God’s power and intentions, admitting that they are beyond his understanding. Before, Job had known God through the teachings of tradition; now, immersed in the Mystery, he has a more direct knowledge of Him and renounces everything he has said. Is he showing repentance for his supposed sins? Surely not, for God is not served with lies. Job may have gone too far in his eagerness to understand, but his sufferings are not the result of sin. What he truly understands now is the fragility and limitation of the human condition (6, “dust and ashes”).
Epilogue.
The book ends with a prose epilogue. God vindicates Job. The conclusion unfolds in three scenes: 1. God rebukes Eliphaz and his two friends: “They have not spoken rightly about me, as my servant Job has” (7). This is as ironic as it is necessary. To highlight this, it is repeated in the next verse. If the friends want to avoid punishment, they must ask Job for forgiveness; he grants it, and God accepts it. 2. Along with honor, God restores Job’s property (10s), even though he never asked for or mentioned it. Family and friends come to offer him genuine comfort. 3. Finally, God blesses Job (12-17) with new livestock—twice as much as before—and a new family: seven sons and three daughters, whose names reflect their beauty: Jemimah (Dove), Keziah (Acacia), and Keren-happuch (Jet). Job dies happy, full of years, surrounded by his sons and daughters up to the third generation.