Job 42

³⁴ Let not the wise and powerful—counselors, judges, kings and priests (verses 17–19)—glory in their wisdom and power. All they have and all they do is made possible by the enabling wisdom and power of God (verse 13).

³⁵ In ancient times, the soles of prisoners and slaves were branded with a hot iron as a means of identification.

³⁶ In verse 35, Eliphaz ends with a true statement about the wicked, the godless: They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. Trouble is first conceived in the mind and heart. It begins as an evil desire, an evil thought; then it soon gives birth to sinful acts (see James 1:13–15).

³⁷ Job is not completely wrong in saying that God was “attacking” him; indeed, God allowed the attacks to take place. Likewise, when we ourselves are assailed by enemies, illnesses, and other difficult circumstances, we need to see God's hand in them. It is not helpful to us to lash out at other humans or to lash out at our “bad luck.” It is God with whom we have to deal. And we need to ask, just as Job needed to ask: “God, what is your purpose behind my difficulties? Show me what I must do, and give me the strength to do it.”

³⁸ Job did not possess the Holy Spirit in the way we do today; Christians have spiritual resources that Job didn't have. Therefore, we ought to judge ourselves by a higher standard. Jesus taught us to deny ourselves and take up our cross (Mark 8:34). Truly, Job was “bearing a cross,” but he didn't have Jesus by his side.

³⁹ In verse 5, Job quotes a proverb that warns against denouncing one's friends (as the three friends had been doing to him); such slanderers—or their children—will suffer the consequences.

⁴⁰ Verses 8–9 are difficult to understand. Job may be saying: “Upright and innocent men will take my side against my three ungodly counselors; in doing so, these upright men will maintain their righteousness.” Or Job may be speaking sarcastically, in which case he is calling his three friends “upright” and “innocent” men who are aroused against the ungodly—namely, Job.

⁴¹ In the grave, Job's body will undergo decomposition and be covered with maggots; in Job's mind, the maggots will represent his father and mother (verse 14).

⁴² Notice that those (like Bildad) who are inclined to be severe with others will commonly insist that it is they who have been treated severely!

⁴³ In verse 13, Bildad says that death's firstborn will devour the limbs of the wicked. In ancient times, death was represented as a king, a ruler of the underworld; “death's firstborn,” then, would be the offspring of such a ruler.

⁴⁴ Truly knowing God doesn't mean just knowing about Him in an intellectual sense; it means knowing and relating to God personally. For further discussion on the subject of knowing God, see Exodus 6:2–5 and comment.

⁴⁵ To “redeem” someone (like a slave or criminal) means to pay a price to purchase that person's freedom or acquittal. Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, purchased our acquittal by offering His own life in place of ours. For further discussion of redemption, see Exodus 13:11–16; Ruth 2:19–20 and comments; Word List: Redemption.

⁴⁶ The Hebrew word for Redeemer is “goel,” an important word in Old Testament theology. It has two meanings. First, it means an avenger of blood (Numbers 35:16–21)—that is, someone who will obtain justice for a murdered kinsman by killing the murderer. Second, it means a deliverer who will purchase a kinsman's lost property (or lost freedom) and thus restore him to his rightful inheritance. If the kinsman has died, then his heirs receive the inheritance. The best Old Testament example of a kinsman redeemer is Boaz; his story is found in the book of Ruth.
     Job saw himself as a “murder victim.” He looked to a Redeemer who would both avenge him and also deliver him and restore to him his name and honor.

⁴⁷ The teaching about a bodily resurrection after death is not well developed in the Old Testament, but the belief in some kind of afterlife is expressed in many Old Testament passages, prominent among them being verses 25–27. Clearly the Holy Spirit inspired Job to speak these words.
     The fullest teaching about the resurrection of the body is found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 15.

⁴⁸ The first cycle of speeches is covered in Chapters 4–14; the second cycle is covered in Chapters 15–21.

⁴⁹ The dark and the flood (verse 11) are poetic figures of speech representing trouble and suffering.

⁵⁰ Notice that in verses 21–30 Eliphaz describes the blessings that come from submitting to God, while earlier in verses 15–20 he talked about the punishments that come from not submitting. Both approaches are equally valid; we need to remind people that in God's universe there are both rewards and punishments, blessings and curses (Leviticus 26:3–39; Deuteronomy 30:11–20). If the positive (reward) approach doesn't produce a response, maybe the negative (punishment) approach will!

⁵¹ The light also stands for God's law, against which evildoers rebel.

⁵² In verses 18–25, Job describes in figurative language what happens to wicked people. Many of them don't amount to anything; they are like foam on the surface of water (verse 18); they go childless, and their bodies are eaten by worms (verse 20); for a time they may feel established and secure (verses 22–23), but in the end they are cut off like heads of grain—a figure symbolizing judgment (verse 24).

⁵³ In verse 6, note once again the repetitive nature of Hebrew poetry. There is no essential difference between a man who is a maggot, and a son of man who is a worm; both lines of the verse state the same thing. Throughout the book of Job, most of the poetic stanzas have consisted of two lines, the second of which repeats the thought of the first line or adds to it. For further discussion of Hebrew poetry, see Psalms: Introduction.

⁵⁴ We must never try to exalt God by demeaning His creation; to demean man is to demean God.

⁵⁵ In verse 12, Rahab is a mythical sea monster (Job 9:13). In verse 13, the gliding serpent is Leviathan, another mythical sea monster (Job 3:8).

⁵⁶ In the Old Testament, to accuse someone falsely was a serious crime. The accuser was given the same punishment that would have been given to the accused had the accusation been true (Deuteronomy 19:16–19). For what it means to be cut off, see Leviticus 7:19–21 and comment.

⁵⁷ Note, in verses 16–19, that the riches heaped up by the wicked end up in the hands of the righteous. Even the big houses of the wicked are no more permanent than a cocoon or a watchman's hut (verse 18). These verses remind us of Jesus' parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13–21.

⁵⁸ For a discussion of wisdom, see Proverbs 1:2–7 and comment.

⁵⁹ In verse 22, Job is imagining that the dead may have gained some understanding that they didn't have in life (see Luke 16:19–31).

⁶⁰ For further discussion of the fear of the Lord, see footnote to comment on Genesis 20:8–13; Deuteronomy 6:1–3 and comment.

⁶¹ Such language offends our modern ears. Why does Job spend so much time denouncing the fathers of his mockers? He does it in order to dramatize how far he has fallen: now even the sons of vagabonds are mocking him (verse 9). This kind of poetic overstatement was a common rhetorical device in the ancient Middle East.

⁶² Job made a covenant with [his] eyes (verse 1). Sin begins in the eye-in the heart. So to avoid committing this sin of lust, Job had to control his eyes-to keep his eyes bound by a “covenant” promise not to look lustfully at women (see Matthew 5:28).

⁶³ In verse 7, Job says: “. . . if my heart has been led by my eyes. . .” He is referring here to the sin of covetousness. First we see something with our eyes, and then we long for it in our heart. The Apostle John calls covetousness the “lust of the eyes” (1 John 2:16). The tenth commandment forbids us to covet (see Exodus 20:17 and comment).

⁶⁴ All sins against other people are also sins against God, because He has commanded us to love others, not to harm them.

⁶⁵ For further discussion on the subject of idolatry, see Exodus 20:3–6; 34:15–16; Deuteronomy 4:28 and comments.

⁶⁶ Gloating over enemies is condemned both by Moses and by Jesus (see Exodus 23:4–5; Matthew 5:43–44). Inhospitality also is condemned; instead, we are to show hospitality to all (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9).

⁶⁷In fairness to Job, we must add that not only was he righteous in his own eyes (verse 1) but he was also righteous—blameless and upright—in God's eyes (Job 1:8).
     No person—not even someone like Job—can claim to be righteous in and of himself. But through faith in the One who was completely righteous, Jesus Christ, we too can be considered “righteous” in God's eyes—not through any righteousness of our own, but through the righteousness of Him who died to save us from our sins (see Romans 3:21–24).

⁶⁸ God can speak through the young as well as the old; He can speak to us through our children. Paul wrote to Timothy: Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young (1 Timothy 4:12).

⁶⁹ The Spirit of God was active in the creation of the earth and continues to be active in maintaining God's creation (Genesis 1:2); also, man was originally taken from clay (verse 6)—that is, from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7).

⁷⁰ Earlier Job had expressed the desire for a mediator to stand between him and God (Job 9:32–35; 16:18–21). Here Elihu takes that idea one step further: through the mediator, sinful man can be redeemed (verse 28) by the paying of a ransom (verse 24). For further discussion on the subject of redemption, see Exodus 13:11–16; Ruth 2:19–20 and comments; Word List: Redemption.

⁷¹ It is important to keep in mind that Elihu does not draw a clear distinction between physical life on earth and life after death. He is most likely thinking only of life on earth when he speaks of Job being renewed and restored (verses 25–26). The Old Testament does not provide clear teaching about the afterlife. As Christians, however, we know that we receive new spiritual life when we believe in Christ and that that life will last forever. We also know that after death we shall receive a new spiritual body which will never die.

⁷² The you in verse 16 is singular.

⁷³ Job had asked earlier for such a hearing before God in order to proclaim his innocence (see Job 24:1; 31:35–37).

⁷⁴ In verse 14, Elihu says that the wicked will die among the male prostitutes of the shrines. Ritual prostitution, both male and female, was one of the most shameful features of Canaanite worship (1 Kings 14:24).

⁷⁵ In verse 1, the writer of the book of Job uses the covenant name of Israel's God. In their speeches, Job and his counselors used the general word for God because they were non-Israelites (see Job: Introduction).

⁷⁶ Sometimes God does give us answers to our questions, but He is not obliged to. Our faith must rest in God Himself and not in answers.

⁷⁷ In verse 23, God says He reserves the hail for times of trouble. Sometimes He uses hail as a weapon to punish the enemies of His people (see Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 28:2).

⁷⁸ In verse 31, God mentions Pleiades and Orion, two constellations of stars known to people in the ancient Middle East (Job 9:9).

⁷⁹ The Hebrew word for unworthy (verse 4) can also mean “small and insignificant.” Certainly this is how Job felt after he saw how small he was and how little he knew compared with God.
     In verse 5, Job says: “I spoke once . . . twice. . .” The “once” and “twice” are not meant to be taken literally; this is a Hebrew figure of speech meaning “more than once.”

⁸⁰ Job had said: “God has wronged me” (Job 19:6). Statements like this are what constituted Job's sin against God.

⁸¹ God's arm symbolizes His power.

⁸² The use of the behemoth and the leviathan as symbols is found elsewhere in the Old Testament and also in Revelation Chapters 12–13, where the words “beast” and “dragon” are used. Indeed, in Revelation 12:9, John writes: The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. The behemoth and leviathan, then, are essentially the same symbol—the symbol of Satan. For further discussion, see comment on Job 41:1–11 and footnote to comment.

⁸³ Like the behemoth (Job 40:15), the leviathan described in Chapter 41 is best understood as an actual creature—though its description is highly figurative. It later entered popular mythology as the sea monster Leviathan (see Job 3:8). For further discussion of the leviathan, see comment on Job 40:15 and footnote to comment.

⁸⁴ Job had humbled himself and repented before God; therefore, the time had come for him to be restored, to be exalted (see James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6).

⁸⁵ Job experienced God's “good” in this life. But far more important is the “good” that God has in store for us after this life. Even though a believer can see no end to suffering on earth, he or she can still count on an end to suffering in heaven (Revelation 21:4)—plus eternal fellowship with God.