Job 42:1-7

Job’s Confession

42:1 Then Job answered the Lord:

42:2 “I know that you can do all things;

no purpose of yours can be thwarted;

42:3 you asked, ¹ 

‘Who is this who darkens counsel

without knowledge?’

But ²  I have declared without understanding ³ 

things too wonderful for me to know. ⁴ 

42:4 You said, ⁵ 

‘Pay attention, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you will answer me.’

42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye has seen you. ⁶ 

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ⁷ 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)

42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he ⁸  said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up ⁹  against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, ¹⁰  as my servant Job has.

[42:3]  ¹ tn The expression “you asked” is added here to clarify the presence of the line to follow. Many commentators delete it as a gloss from Job 38:2. If it is retained, then Job has to be recalling God’s question before he answers it.

[42:3]  ² tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.

[42:3]  ³ tn Heb “and I do not understand.” The expression serves here in an adverbial capacity. It also could be subordinated as a complement: “I have declared [things that] I do not understand.”

[42:3]  ⁴ tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.

[42:4]  ⁵ tn This phrase, “you said,” is supplied in the translation to introduce the recollection of God’s words.

[42:5]  ⁶ sn This statement does not imply there was a vision. He is simply saying that this experience of God was real and personal. In the past his knowledge of God was what he had heard – hearsay. This was real.

[42:6]  ⁷ tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[42:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” The title has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[42:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “is kindled.”

[42:7]  ¹⁰ 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.