Job 36:1

Elihu’s Fourth Speech ¹ 

36:1 Elihu said further: ² 

Job 27:1

A Protest of Innocence

27:1 And Job took up his discourse again: ³ 

Job 29:1

IV. Job’s Concluding Soliloquy (29:1-31:40)

Job Recalls His Former Condition ⁴ 

29:1 Then Job continued ⁵  his speech:

Job 42:10

42:10 So the Lord ⁶  restored what Job had lost ⁷  after he prayed for his friends, ⁸  and the Lord doubled ⁹  all that had belonged to Job.

[36:1]  ¹ sn This very lengthy speech can be broken down into the following sections: the discipline of suffering (36:2-25), the work and wisdom of God (36:26–37:24).

[36:1]  ² tn The use of וַיֹּסֶף (vayyosef) is with the hendiadys construction: “and he added and said,” meaning “and he said again, further.”

[27:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew word מָשָׁל (mashal) is characteristically “proverb; by-word.” It normally refers to a brief saying, but can be used for a discourse (see A. R. Johnson, “MasŒal,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 162ff.).

[29:1]  ⁵ sn Now that the debate with his friends is over, Job concludes with a soliloquy, just as he had begun with one. Here he does not take into account his friends or their arguments. The speech has three main sections: Job’s review of his former circumstances (29:1-25); Job’s present misery (30:1-31); and Job’s vindication of his life (31:1-40).

[29:1]  ⁶ tn The verse uses a verbal hendiadys: “and he added (וַיֹּסֶף, vayyosef)…to raise (שְׂאֵת, sÿ’et) his speech.” The expression means that he continued, or he spoke again.

[42:10]  ⁷ tn The paragraph begins with the disjunctive vav, “Now as for the Lord, he….”

[42:10]  ⁸ 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.

[42:10]  ⁹ 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.

[42:10]  ¹⁰ tn The construction uses the verb “and he added” with the word “repeat” (or “twice”).