Job 42:5-6

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

but now my eye has seen you. ¹ 

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ² 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

[42:5]  ¹ 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]  ² 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).