Job 42 Footnotes

42:1-7 This crucial passage reveals the key to the entire book of Job. Job finally received the answer to the question of his unjust treatment, but the answer did not come in the form of a logical argument that vindicated either his righteousness or his friends’ accusations against him. Instead—thanks, in part, to Elihu’s intervention—Job came to a revelation of God’s overwhelming majesty and, what is more, God had spoken to him at last. Job saw that, in questioning God’s justice, he had spoken out of turn; God does the questioning (“When I question you, you will inform me,” v. 4). Job had “seen” the God of whom he had formerly only “heard reports.” This revelation moved Job to repentance (vv. 5-6). He had made much of his own integrity, failing to recognize who was really in charge of the discussion all along.

42:7-17 A widely accepted theory of critical scholarship holds that the dialogues of the book of Job were inserted into an original story in which Job displayed his proverbial “patience” and piety, while his friends found fault with both him and God. According to this theory, the ending (and beginning) of the book come from the old story, which would explain why Job appears to behave differently here from the way he responded in the dialogues with his friends. When one considers the logical method of Israelite Wisdom literature, such a theory becomes unnecessary. Looking at the book as a whole, we see that Job (and his friends as well) proposed various answers to the problem of his suffering. Job considered it unmerited and demanded an explanation from God. The friends tried to explain it, defending God’s justice. Yet in the end God told them, “You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has” (v. 7). This sounds odd, since the friends’ arguments sounded completely “orthodox” in terms of the Bible’s general view of God’s punishment of the guilty. What they failed to do—and which Job did—was to deal directly with God about the issue instead of just talking about him. They felt they had to defend God, while Job “dared” God to speak for himself—because God needs no defense.