Bible Commentaries
Job 42

Verses 1-6

God Reveals Himself to Job by His Creation Did not Job believe God heard his prayers in the midst of his prosperity? How much more should God hear him in the midst of his suffering? In a mighty display of nature’s energy, a whirlwind approaches Job, and a divine voice begins to come forth and speak to Job. God now reveals His true character to Job because his friends had misrepresented Him. He reveals Himself as the omnipotent Creator of the universe, who daily watches over each aspect of His creatures with love and concern through His omniscience and omnipresence. More specifically, God reveals that He alone is just and Job and all of mankind are in need of redemption through faith in God. In man’s fallen condition since the Garden of Eden, all of creation has been made subject to vanity and endures suffering. God will now lead Job into an act of intercession for his friends in order to receive his own deliverance as a testimony that man will have to redeem himself. Yet, what man is qualified to redeem mankind? Job will understand that it must be a man, a man who was righteous before God, a man who must suffer, a man who must be an intercessor, that will redeem mankind. The fullness of this revelation will come at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God Himself becomes a man to redeem His people, and with it, all of creation.

We find a similar passage of Scripture in Isaiah 40:12 to Isaiah 41:29, where God challenges backslidden Israel to produce her reasons for trusting in idols (Job 41:21). In a similar manner God reveals to Israel her frailty and weakness in the midst of His majestic creation that reveals Him as the divine creator of all things.

Here is a proposed outline:

God’s First Speech Job 38:1 to Job 40:2

Job’s Reply Job 40:3-5

God’s Second Speech Job 40:6 to Job 41:34

Job’s Reply Job 42:1-6

Job 38:1 to Job 42:6 God Reveals Himself to Job by His Creation (The Purpose of the Sciences and Art) The Lord spoke to me this morning and said that the sciences and arts are an expression of God’s divine nature. God reveals His divine nature through His creation (Job 38-41), and the sciences are the tools that mankind uses to explore His creation. The arts are an expression of man’s heart and emotions, and when the Spirit of God is allowed to inspire mankind, he speaks in poetry and song, in paintings and other works of art. (March 24, 2009)

Job 38:1 to Job 40:2 God’s First Speech to Job: The Story of His Creation In Job 38:1 to Job 40:2 God delivers His first speech to Job. The story of creation recorded in Job 38:1 to Job 40:2 serves as a testimony to Job of God’s divine attributes. In this passage of Scripture the Lord revealed to Job His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, and His infinite wisdom and power over all of His creation. He reveals to Job the fact that He daily oversees the activities of His creation. God’s description of creating the heavens and earth in Job 38:4-38 reveals His omnipotence. His description of overseeing and sustaining His creatures reveals His omniscience and omnipresence.

In the study of the Holy Scriptures we discover a number of passages revealing the events in the Story of Creation. For example, we have the testimony of the Father’s role in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4 as the One who has planned and foreknown all things in His creation. We also have the testimony of the Jesus Christ the Son’s role in creation recorded John 1:1-14, who is the Word of God through whom all things were created. In Proverbs 8:22-31 we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit’s role in creation as the Wisdom and Power of God. 2 Peter 3:5-7 refers to the story of creation with emphasis upon God’s pending destruction of all things in order to judge the sins of mankind. Hebrews 11:3 tells us how it is by faith that we understand how the world was created by the Word of God. Another passage of Scripture that reveals the story of Creation is found in Job 38:1 to Job 40:2, where the wisdom and majesty of God Almighty are revealed by describing the details of how His creation came into existence. We can find other brief references to the creation of the earth throughout the Scriptures, such as Psalms 104:0 and many other individual verses.

Here is a proposed summary of Job 38:1 to Job 40:2:

God Asks Job for Dialogue Job 38:1-3

God As Creator of the Earth Job 38:4-38

God Created the Earth Job 38:4-7

God Created the Seas Job 38:8-11

God Created Day and Night Job 38:12-15

The Depths and Breath of the Sea & Earth Job 38:16-18

God Created Light and Darkness Job 38:19-21

God Created Snow and Ice Job 38:22-30

God Created the Stars & Constellations Job 38:31-33

God Created the Clouds Job 38:34-38

God As Sustainer of Life on the Earth Job 38:39 to Job 39:30

God Sustains the Lion Job 38:39-40

God Sustains the Raven Job 38:41

God Sustains the Wild Goats & Deer Job 39:1-4

God Sustains the Wild Donkey Job 39:5-8

God Sustains the Wild Ox Job 39:9-12

God Sustains the Ostrich Job 39:13-18

God Sustains the Horse Job 39:19-25

God Sustains the Hawk & Eagle Job 39:26-30

God Concludes His First Speech Job 40:1-2

Verses 1-17

Job 42:1-6 Job’s Second Reply to God - God has demanded a second reply from Job in Job 40:7. Job 42:1-6 records this second reply to God, in which Job responds to the Lord’s discourse of Job 40:7 to Job 41:34.

Job 40:7, “Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.”

Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

Job 42:2 Comments - In Job 42:2 Job acknowledges two divine attributes of God. He understands that God is omnipotent, or all-powerful, in his statement, “I know that thou canst do everything”; and, he understands that God is omniscient, or all-knowing, in his words “no thought can be withholden from thee.”

Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

Job 42:3 “Who is he that hideth counsel without know” Comments - Job quotes the Lord’s demands of him from Job 38:1, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?”

Job 42:3 “therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not” Comments - After God revealed His omniscience in the previous chapters, Job feels that his former speeches were without any knowledge in comparison.

Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

Job 42:4 “I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me” - Comments - In this second reply Job repeats God’s demand for his reply by saying, “I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me,” (Job 42:4).

Job 42:3-4 Comments - Job Quotes the Lord’s Opening Statement to His Speech - The NIV reads, “You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’” (Job 42:3-4) Thus, Job is understood to be paraphrasing a statement from the Lord’s speech in Job 38:1-3.

Job 38:1-3, “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.”

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

Job 42:5 Comments - Job transcends the problem of evil and suffering by looking beyond his present circumstance and experiencing God’s presence.

Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Job 42:6 Comments - As believers, we have studied and learned about God from the Scriptures. However, if we ever come into His presence, as Job did here, we, too, would fall down and cry as Isaiah and say, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)

Isaiah 6:5, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Job truly had a supernatural experience with God, and expressed the overwhelming awe and brokenness of any human that beholds the glory of God.

Job 42:6 “wherefore I abhor myself” - Comments - Job said, “I despise myself.” He saw himself like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:5, which is man in relation to God’s holiness and majesty.

Isaiah 6:5, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Job 42:7-17 The Epilogue Job 42:7-17 forms the epilogue to the book of Job. This passage of Scripture contains the Lord’s rebuke towards Job’s three friends (Job 42:7-9) and Job’s restoration to health and prosperity (Job 42:10-17).

Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

Job 42:7 “for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right” - Comments - Job had already realized that his three friends were telling lies. Here, the Lord confirms Job's statement in Job 13:4.

Job 13:4, “But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”

Job 42:8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

Job 42:8 “for him will I accept” Comments - The LITV reads, “Surely I will lift up his face.” The YLT reads, “for surely his face I accept.” Zöckler renders the literal translation of this phrase as “his person will I lift up, will I regard favorably.” [66] We find a similar statement in Psalms 34:5, “They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.”

[66] Otto Zöckler, The Book of Job, trans. by L. J. Evans, in Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. Philip Schaff (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1872), 630.

Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Job 42:10 “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job” - Comments - This phrase especially refers to Job's health (3 John 1:2).

3 John 1:2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

Job 42:10 “when he prayed for his friends” - Comments - Job’s revelation of God in Job 38-41 helped him to focus on heavenly things and to look beyond his suffering. With this mindset, he stopped praying for the deliverance of himself and was able to prayer for the deliverance of his friends, thus receiving deliverance for himself.

Job 42:10 “also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before” - Comments - This two-fold blessing refers to Job's prosperity (3 John 1:2). After prospering Job, God then called him to demonstrate to his generation the fact that his prosperity was a result of divine blessings, rather than from Job’s own abilities and righteousness. Thus, it was necessary for God to remove Job’s prosperity entirely, and restore it two-fold as a sign to his generation that Job’s prosperity came from God because of his right standing before God. Job’s friends accused Job of causing his own calamities, and they could have as easily accused him of causing his own prosperity. After God restores Job two-fold, no one could doubt that Job’s prosperity came from the Lord.

3 John 1:2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

Job 42:10 Comments - Health and prosperity are God's rewards.

Job 42:11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.

Job 42:12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.

Job 42:13 Comments - Since the numbers seven and three represent divine intervention in the affairs of mankind throughout the Scriptures, we see in this verse God's divine hand in restoring to Job his children.

Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.

Job 42:14 Word Study on “Jemima” Strong says the Hebrew name “Jemima” ( יְמִימָה ) (H3224) means, “warm, affectionate, dove.”

Job 42:14 Word Study on “ Keziah” Gesenius says the Hebrew name “Keziah” ( קְצִיעָה ) (H7103) means, “cassia…a bark similar to cinnamon, but less aromatic, so called from its being peeled off.”

Psalms 45:8, “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.”

Job 42:14 Word Study on “Kerenhappuch” Gesenius says the Hebrew name “Kerenhappuch” ( קֶרֶן הַפּוּךְ ) (H7163) means, “horn of paint.” Strong says it means, “horn of cosmetic.” PTW says it means, “horn of antimony.” It comes from ( קֶרֶן ) (H7161), meaning, “horn,” and ( פּוּךְ ) (H6320), meaning, “to paint, dye.” The ISBE says, “Antimony, producing a brilliant black, was used among the Orientals for coloring the edges of the eyelids, making the eyes large and lustrous. Hence, the suggestiveness of this name of an article of the ladies’ toilet, a little horn or receptacle for the eye-paint. [67] See:

[67] “Keren-happuch,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).

2 Kings 9:30, “And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.”

Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

Job 42:17 Comments - The statement that Job died in his old age being full of days is a familiar Old Testament phrase that is used to say a man fulfilled his purpose in life and died after living a healthy and long life.

Genesis 25:8,”Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.”

Genesis 35:29, “And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”

1 Chronicles 23:1, “So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.”

1 Chronicles 29:28, “And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.”

2 Chronicles 24:15, “But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.”