Job 42:3-13

3 'Who is this that ¹hides counsel without knowledge?' "Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things ²too wonderful for me, which I did not know."

4 'Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ³ask You, and You instruct me.'

5 "I have ⁴heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my ⁵eye sees You;

6 Therefore * I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes."

God Displeased with Job's Friends

7 It came about after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right ⁶as My servant Job has.

8 "Now therefore, take for yourselves ⁷seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a ⁸burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will ⁹pray for you. ¹⁰For I will accept * him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has."

9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted * Job.

God Restores Job's Fortunes

10 The LORD ¹¹restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold.

11 Then all his ¹²brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they ¹³consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold.

12 ¹⁴The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; ¹⁵and he had 14,000 * * sheep and 6,000 * camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.

13 ¹⁶He had seven sons and three daughters.

Job 42:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 42

This chapter contains Job's answer to the last speech of the Lord's, in which he acknowledges his omnipotence, and his certain performance of his purposes and pleasure; owns his own folly and ignorance, and confesses his sins; for which he abhorred himself, and of which he repented, Job 42:1-6; it also gives an account of the Lord's decision of the controversy between Job and his friends, blaming them and commending him above them; and ordered them to take sacrifices and go to Job and offer them, who should pray for them and be accepted, which was done, Job 42:7-9; and it closes with a relation of the great prosperity Job was restored unto, in which he lived and died, Job 42:10-17.

Cross References

• 1. Job 38:2
• 2. Psalms 40:5; Psalms 131:1; Psalms 139:6
• 3. Job 38:3; Job 40:7
• 4. Job 26:14; Romans 10:17
• 5. Isaiah 6:5; Ephesians 1:17, 18
• 6. Job 40:3-5; Job 42:1-6
• 7. Numbers 23:1
• 8. Job 1:5
• 9. Genesis 20:17; James 5:16; 1 John 5:16
• 10. Job 22:30
• 11. Deuteronomy 30:3; Job 1:2, 3; Psalms 14:7; Psalms 85:1-3; Psalms 126:1-6
• 12. Job 19:13
• 13. Job 2:11
• 14. Job 1:10; Job 8:7; James 5:11
• 15. Job 1:3
• 16. Job 1:2

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "lift up his face"
• [b] Lit "lifted up the face of"
• [c] Heb "qesitah"