VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)
42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he 1 said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up 2 against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, 3 as my servant Job has. 42:8 So now take 4 seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede 5 for you, and I will respect him, 6 so that I do not deal with you 7 according to your folly, 8 because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9
54:17 No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed;
you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. 10
This is what the Lord will do for his servants –
I will vindicate them,” 11
says the Lord.
54:2 Make your tent larger,
stretch your tent curtains farther out! 12
Spare no effort,
lengthen your ropes,
and pound your stakes deep. 13
1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn 14 from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 15
1 tn Heb “the
2 tn Heb “is kindled.”
3 tn The form נְכוֹנָה (nÿkhonah) is from כּוּן (kun, “to be firm; to be fixed; to be established”). Here it means “the right thing” or “truth.” The Akkadian word kenu (from כּוּן, kun) connotes justice and truth.
4 tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.
5 tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”
6 tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”
7 tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.
8 tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.
9 sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.
10 tn Heb “and every tongue that rises up for judgment with you will prove to be guilty.”
11 tn Heb “this is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me.”
12 tn Heb “the curtains of our dwelling places let them stretch out.”
13 tn Heb “your stakes strengthen.”
14 tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.
15 tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”