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Job 42:1-6 and 10-17
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 Then Job answered the Lord.
Job
2 I know, Lord, that you are all-powerful; that
you can do everything you want.
3 You ask how I dare question your wisdom
when I am so very ignorant. I talked about
things I did not understand, about marvels too
great for me to know.
4 You told me to listen while you spoke and to
try to answer your questions.
5 In the past I knew only what others had told
me, but now I have seen you with my own
eyes.
6 So I am ashamed of all I have said and repent
in dust and ashes.
10 Then, after Job had prayed for his three
friends, the Lord made him prosperous again
and gave him twice as much as he had had
before.
11 All Job's brothers and sisters and former
friends came to visit him and feasted with him
in his house. They expressed their sympathy
and comforted him for all the troubles the Lord
had brought on him. Each of them gave him
some money and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the last part of Job's life
even more than he had blessed the first.
Job owned fourteen thousand sheep,
six thousand camels, two thousand head of
cattle, and one thousand donkeys.
13 He was the father of seven sons and three
daughters.
14 He called the oldest daughter Jemimah,
the second Keziah, and the youngest
Keren Happuch. [a]
15 There were no other women in the whole
world as beautiful as Job's daughters.
Their father gave them a share of the
inheritance along with their brothers.
16 Job lived a hundred and forty years after this,
long enough to see his grandchildren and
great-grandchildren.
17 And then he died at a very great age.
Footnotes
Job 42:14 In Hebrew the names of Job's
daughters suggest beauty both by their sound
and by their meaning.
Jemimah means "dove"; Keziah means
"cassia," a variety of cinnamon used as a
perfume;
and Keren Happuch means a small box
used for eye make-up.
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Commentary taken from 'word-on-the-web'
supplied by the Scripture Union
Job 42:1-6 and 10-17
When God wants us to understand the mystery of suffering, he doesn't give us an intellectual argument - he gives us the story of Job.
Job has got it all - health, wealth and a loving family - but he loses everything.
His friends tell him it is his own fault. He must have sinned or offended God.
Job insists that he has not sinned. He questions God.
He gets angry with God. But through it all, he holds on to his belief that God is in control (v 2).
God eventually speaks to him, but doesn't give him an answer.
He just points out that these things are too big for Job to comprehend (v 3).
And Job is satisfied - because he doesn't really want an answer.
He just wants to know that God has not abandoned him.
And in this final chapter, God shows Job that he is on his side. He reprimands his friends, commends Job and blesses him.
The message of the Bible from Job through to James is that we need to hold on to God in the bad times.
There is no other answer.
Of course, we should not let the good times hide him from us either!
Job's sufferings were obviously familiar to James's readers (James 5:11).
A respectable man, who had raised ten children and had extensive flocks and land, Job knew he was blessed by God (Job 1:1).
But something more was asked of him - he needed to prove his was more than a fair-weather faith.
Terrible suffering
When disaster struck, Job's so-called friends thought he must have committed some awful sin, while his wife just told him to give up on the God who treated him so badly (2:9,10).
But Job did not blame God despite everything that happened to him.
In the end Job's fortunes were restored and he lived for another 140 years.
According to James, we should take this as our model - 'Be patient . until the Lord's coming .
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy' (James 5:7,11).
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