Job 42:9-10

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. ¹ 

42:10 So the Lord ²  restored what Job had lost ³  after he prayed for his friends, ⁴  and the Lord doubled ⁵  all that had belonged to Job.

[42:9]  ¹ tn The expression “had respect for Job” means God answered his prayer.

[42:10]  ² tn The paragraph begins with the disjunctive vav, “Now as for the Lord, he….”

[42:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The construction uses the verb “and he added” with the word “repeat” (or “twice”).