Job 42

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC; some extant ancient manuscripts of this version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^S; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century).

Verse 3

[Job says:] ^a‘Who is he who hides counsel without knowledge?’

^bTherefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

^cthings too wonderful for me which I did not know.

• Clause (a) is Job's restatement of God's question (Job 38:2) before he answers it in clauses (b) and (c). YHWH's questions in the speeches have changed Job's understanding that he realizes how much he does not know.
• "Wonderful": translated from the Hebrew word פָלָא, pala or pele, which refers to 'information in the divine realm that is beyond human understanding' or "supernatural". In the Hebrew Bible this word is used to describe knowledge of God's name (Judges 13:18) and God's wondrous acts (Exodus 3:20; Joshua 3:5; Judges 6:13; Psalm 139:6). In the Book of Job, this word occurs 6 times, in Job 5:9; 9:10; 10:16; 37:5, 14; 42:3, each instance of which helps to understand its meaning.

Verse 5

[Job says:] I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees You.

Here Job distinguishes between the 'secondhand experience' ("my ears had heard"; "hearsay") and 'firsthand experience' ("now my eyes have seen"), which gives him a better understanding (verse 6).

Verse 6

[Job says:] "Therefore I abhor myself,

and repent in dust and ashes"

• "Abhor": or "despise" (such as in NRSV, NIV, ESV) translated from the Hebrew word מָאַס, mā'as, which has a core meaning of "reject" or "retract"; in this case, Job "rejects" or "retracts" his litigation against God (cf. usage in Job 31:13 against a legal case or suit).
• "Repent": translated from the Hebrew word נָחַם, nakham, "to be sorry, console oneself". It can refer to 'human repentance for wrongdoing' (Jeremiah 8:6; 31:19), or 'change of attitude out of compassion' (Judges 21:6, 15), or 'moving from a right course of action to a wrong one' (Exodus 13:17). God is said to be 'repenting' of the good he intended to do (Jeremiah 18:10). Here the word implied "regret", that Job regrets his earlier statements: 'his characterization of God, his presumptuous belief in his own understanding and his arrogant challenges'. The verb should be distinguished from other Hebrew words that can also be translated as "repent", such as shub ("return", to change a behavior), which was used by Eliphaz to urge Job to "repent" from his presumptively 'great sin' (Job 22:23), because in 42:6 Job does not suggest a behavior change, but suggest a wish to retract his previous statements.

Verse 7

And so it was, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has."

Job's friends tried to protect YHWH's reputation by insisting that Job must have sinned, which is extrapolating the divine retribution principle, that reduced YHWH to a 'predictable deity' confined to a fixed formula. On the other hand, despite Job's complaints about God's justice and fairness, God knows completely what in Job's heart and has evaluated Job on the basis of that perfect understanding.

Verse 17

So Job died, old and full of days.

• "Old and full of days": from the Hebrew phrase זקן ושבע ימים, zā-qên ū-śə-ḇa‘ yā-mîm, "old and sated/satisfied (in) days", which echoes the experiences of Abraham (Genesis 25:8; זקן ושבע, zā-qên wə-śā-ḇê-a‘, "old and sated/satisfied" ), Isaac (Genesis 35:29; זקן ושבע ימים, zā-qên ū-śə-ḇa‘ yā-mîm, "old and sated/satisfied (in) days"), and David (1 Chronicles 29:28; שבע ימים, śə-ḇa‘ yā-mîm, "sated/satisfied (in) days").
• Lutheran writer Johann Bengel notes that the Septuagint and Theodotion add Greek: γέγραπται δὲ αὐτὸν πάλιν ἀναστήσεσθαι μεθʼ ὧν ὁ κύριος ἀνίστησιν, meaning

  but it is written that he shall rise again with those whom the Lord raises.

  Bengel suggests from this wording that Job may have been among those whose bodies were raised on the occurrence of Jesus' death in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 27:52).