Text -- Job 42:9-17 (NET)

42:9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job. 42:10 So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job. 42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 42:12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 42:13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 42:14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. 42:15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers. 42:16 After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 42:17 And so Job died, old and full of days.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 42:9

¹ tn The expression “had respect for Job” means God answered his prayer.

NET Notes: Job 42:10

¹ tn The paragraph begins with the disjunctive vav, “Now as for the Lord, he….”

² sn The expression here is interesting: “he returned the captivity of Job,” a clause used elsewhere in the Bible of Israel (see e.g., Ps 126). Here it must mean “the fortunes of Job,” i.e., what he had lost. There is a good deal of literature on this; for example, see R. Borger, “Zu sub sb(i)t,” ZAW 25 (1954): 315-16; and E. Baumann, ZAW 6 (1929): 17ff.

³ tn This is a temporal clause, using the infinitive construct with the subject genitive suffix. By this it seems that this act of Job was also something of a prerequisite for restoration – to pray for them.

⁴ tn The construction uses the verb “and he added” with the word “repeat” (or “twice”).

NET Notes: Job 42:11

¹ tn Heb “ate bread.”

² tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown.

sn The Hebrew word refers to a piece of silver, yet uncoined. It is the kind used in Gen 33:19 and Josh 24:32. It is what would be expected of a story set in the patriarchal age.

³ sn This gold ring was worn by women in the nose, or men and women in the ear.

NET Notes: Job 42:13

¹ tn The word for “seven” is spelled in an unusual way. From this some have thought it means “twice seven,” or fourteen sons. Several commentators take this view; but it is probably not warranted.

NET Notes: Job 42:14

¹ sn The Hebrew name Jemimah means “dove.”

² sn The Hebrew name Keziah means “cassia.”

³ sn The Hebrew name Keren-Happuch means “horn of eye-paint.”