JOB—NOTE ON 1:1–2:13 Prologue: Job’s Character and the Circumstances of His Test. The prologue opens by introducing Job as a man who was blameless and upright in character, blessed in family and possessions, and whose life embodied the fear of God both for himself and on behalf of his family (1:1–5). The second section details the heavenly conversations and earthly actions related to Satan’s two-stage request to test Job’s character by afflicting him (1:6–2:10). The final section describes how Job’s three friends hear of his suffering and come to offer sympathy and comfort, which creates the context for the rest of the book (2:11–13). The narration of the prologue is integrally important for the interpretation of the book as a whole because it describes for the hearer/reader something that the three friends will continually address: To what extent do the circumstances of Job’s life on earth reveal what is true about him before God? The three friends (as well as Elihu, in his own way) assume that Job’s circumstances reveal some hidden sin or wayward path in Job’s character that has provoked God’s displeasure, correction, or judgment. Job’s friends will continually argue that his circumstances necessarily represent a choice that he has to make: either repent and agree with God, or continue as you are and receive the full punishment signified in your suffering. In responding to his friends, Job insists both that he is right before God and that it is ultimately God who has brought about his circumstances. Throughout the dialogue, Job tries to maintain that he is in the right while also arguing God’s character back to him in lament about why his righteousness and justice do not appear to be borne out in events on earth. In the end, God will reprove Job for the extent of his conclusions about what circumstances on earth might mean for God’s governance and justice (38:1–41:34). However, God will also vindicate Job before his friends, judge them with respect to their words, and call Job to intercede on their behalf (42:7–17).
JOB—NOTE ON 1:1–5 The Integrity of Job. The prologue opens with a brief description of Job’s character and circumstances, which become the context for the subsequent tests.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:1 the land of Uz. The location of this land to the east is unknown, but it may be related to Aram in the north (Gen. 10:22–23), where Abraham’s nephew and family lived (Gen. 22:21), or to a descendant of Seir who lived alongside the sons of Esau in the land also referred to as Edom (Gen. 36:28). The faithfulness of Job is stated at the outset (and affirmed again in Job 1:8; 2:3): he is blameless and upright (a phrase also used in reference to Noah in Gen. 6:9 and to Abraham in Gen. 17:1) and one who feared God and turned away from evil (which echoes the characteristics of one who is “wise” in Proverbs; see Prov. 3:7; 14:16; 16:6). This description represents a gap between what the reader has been told and what the three friends come to assume about Job.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:2–4 The large numbers of children, livestock, and servants, together with the feasting, suggest the enormous prosperity of Job’s life at this point. on his day. Cf. 18:20.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:5 cursed God in their hearts. The Hebrew reads literally “blessed God in their hearts” (see esv footnote), but the context indicates that the opposite sense “to curse” is intended (the same verb is also used with this inferred sense in 1:11; 2:5, 9; 1 Kings 21:10, 13). This construction is undoubtedly a euphemism (i.e., using inference rather than explicit vocabulary to refer to someone “cursing God”). This play on the word “bless” in the description and dialogues of the prologue creates irony with the conclusion of the epilogue (Job 42:7–17), where Job’s three friends are instructed that they are the ones in need of Job’s intercessory prayer because they had spoken foolishly about God (see 42:7–8).
JOB—NOTE ON 1:6–22 The First Test. This section presents the occasion, dialogue, and events of Job’s first test.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:6–12 The Challenge in Heaven. With Job now introduced, the scene switches to the heavenly court. The Lord draws Satan’s attention to Job, thus initiating the chain of events that occupy the rest of the book. The earthly protagonists remain oblivious to these heavenly deliberations.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:6 Sons of God refers to heavenly beings gathered before God like a council before a king (see 15:8; Ps. 29:1; Isa. 6:1–8). The Hebrew idiom “sons of” can be used of a group that is led by a figure referred to as their “father” (e.g., the “father” of a band of prophets in 1 Sam. 10:12). Satan. The Hebrew noun satan is commonly used to refer to someone generally as an adversary (e.g., 1 Sam. 29:4; 1 Kings 11:14) but here refers to a specific individual (“the Accuser” or “the Adversary,” esv footnote) who does not appear to be one of the company but who also came among them. The dialogue that follows reveals the character of this figure to be consistent with that of the serpent in Genesis 3, a character who is also referred to by the use of this noun as the proper name, “Satan” (e.g., 1 Chron. 21:1; see also Rev. 12:9).
JOB—NOTE ON 1:9–11 Satan suggests that the elements of prosperity in Job’s life cast doubt on the sincerity of his fear of God; he contends that if God will only remove the protection of these things, Job will curse (lit., “bless”; see note on v. 5) him outright.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:12 The fact that Satan has to ask permission to test Job (see also 2:6) indicates that the extent of his authority falls ultimately under the sovereign governance of God—something that Job also refers to, but without knowledge of or reference to the heavenly dialogue and its relation to his troubles (1:21; 2:10).
JOB—NOTE ON 1:13–19 The Loss of Family and Possessions. Job’s troubles are described as coming from multiple directions. The Sabeans come from the south (v. 15), the fire from heaven (v. 16), the Chaldeans from the north (v. 17), and the sirocco wind from the east (v. 19). The narrative presents each of the tragedies in rapid succession, giving the reader a feeling described well by Job’s later words, “he will not let me get my breath” (9:18).
JOB—NOTE ON 1:20–22 Job’s Confession and Confidence. Distraught with grief at the calamities that have crushed the household (introduced in vv. 2–4), Job turns to God in lament-laden worship.
JOB—NOTE ON 1:20 In the wake of his loss, Job embodies both grief (Job … tore his robe and shaved his head) and trust in the Lord (and fell on the ground and worshiped).
JOB—NOTE ON 1:21 In contrast to what Satan suggests will happen (vv. 9–11), Job cries out from a posture of grief and worship, “blessed be the name of the LORD.”
JOB—NOTE ON 2:1–10 The Second Test. This section presents the setting, dialogue, and events relating to Job’s second test, which parallel the description and extend the sphere of the first test (1:6–22).
JOB—NOTE ON 2:1–6 The Challenge in Heaven. The second glimpse of the heavenly court (Again, v. 1) deliberately echoes the first (cf. 1:6–12). Taking ultimate responsibility for Job’s calamities, the Lord again fixes Satan’s attention on Job’s blameless and God-honoring character (2:3). Satan responds by seeking permission to attack Job himself, urging that this will reveal the insincerity of Job’s devotion to God (vv. 4–5; cf. 1:9).
JOB—NOTE ON 2:3 The Lord points out to Satan that even after all that has happened to him, Job still holds fast his integrity, a description referring to the whole of his grief, worship, and profession in 1:20–21 as a faithful response.
JOB—NOTE ON 2:4–5 Skin for skin! It is possible that the metaphor refers to the further test Satan is about to request, namely, the permission to afflict Job’s own body. However, the structure of vv. 4–5 suggests that it and the following phrase (All that a man has he will give for his life) are referring primarily to what has already happened. Satan is crassly suggesting that Job maintained his integrity because it cost him only the “skin” of his livestock and family, which he was happy to trade for his own. The next phrase begins with an explicit adversative in Hebrew (But), which contains Satan’s final plea: afflict Job in his bone and his flesh and then he will surely curse God outright.
JOB—NOTE ON 2:6 only spare his life. The sparing of Job’s life is not a mercy, and not merely a concession necessary to the test, but is integral to the test. The most difficult of life’s sorrows are sometimes found when even the mercy of death is denied (cf. 3:20–23; 6:9). This was the ultimate test of faith.
JOB—NOTE ON 2:7–10 Job’s Affliction and Confession. Already in a physical and emotional posture of grief (see 1:20), Job is struck with sores (2:7) and his wife’s question (v. 9), to which he responds further in grief (v. 8) and trust in God (v. 10).
JOB—NOTE ON 2:9 Although the reference to Job’s wife is very brief, the content of her speech is significant for how it relates to the heavenly dialogue and for what this connection reveals about the nature of her comments. Her rhetorical question doubts the sensibility of the very thing God finds commendable about Job (Do you still hold fast your integrity? see v. 3), and her suggested response advises Job to take the action Satan was looking to provoke (Curse God and die; see 1:11; 2:4).
JOB—NOTE ON 2:10 Job responds to his wife with a measured rebuke: he does not presume to know her heart fully, but warns her against speaking like one of the foolish women.
JOB—NOTE ON 2:11–13 Job’s Comforters. After hearing about his troubles, Job’s three friends come together to show him sympathy and to mourn with him.
JOB—NOTE ON 2:11 The three friends of Job all have southern origins known in the OT. Eliphaz is from Teman, an important city in Edom (Gen. 36:11, 15; Ezek. 25:13; Amos 1:11–12), which was apparently known for its wisdom (Jer. 49:7). Bildad is from Shuah, a name of one of the sons of Abraham from his marriage to Keturah, whose brother was Midian and whose nephews were Sheba and Dedan (Gen. 25:2; 1 Chron. 1:32), the latter being the name of a place in Edom or Arabia. Zophar is from Naamah, which is the name of a woman listed in the genealogy of Cain (Gen. 4:22), from whom the Kenites were descendants (Gen. 4:22). The Kenites are also mentioned in connection with the Midianites in the Sinai and Arabian deserts (Num. 10:29; Judg. 4:11). comfort. On this key word in Job, see Introduction: Literary Features.
JOB—NOTE ON 2:12 It is likely that Job’s friends did not recognize him because, in addition to his sores, Job bore the external effects of both the emotional weight and physical manifestations of his grief (see 1:20; 2:7–8).
JOB—NOTE ON 2:13 The silence over a period of seven days and seven nights signifies a complete time of mourning in response to the suffering of Job. Ezekiel exhibited a similar response upon meeting the exiles in Babylon (see Ezek. 3:15).
JOB—NOTE ON 3:1–42:6 Dialogue: Job, His Suffering, and His Standing before God. Between the brief narrative sections of the prologue (1:1–2:13) and epilogue (42:7–17), the large central section of the book consists of dialogue in poetic form (except for the narrative introduction of Elihu in 32:1–5) that focuses on the question of what Job’s suffering reveals both about him and about God’s governing of the world. This section progresses in five main parts: Job’s opening lament (3:1–26), a lengthy section of interchanges between the three friends and Job (4:1–25:6), Job’s closing monologue (26:1–31:40), Elihu’s response (32:1–37:24), and the Lord’s appearance to and interaction with Job (38:1–42:6).
JOB—NOTE ON 3:1–26 Job: Despair for the Day of His Birth. After the prose introduction (vv. 1–2), Job curses the day of his birth (vv. 3–10), expanding on this theme with two sequences of “why?” questions: the first expresses longing for rest (vv. 11–19); the second laments his anxious suffering (vv. 20–26). Job’s opening lament plays off the vocabulary of light and darkness in relation to both questions of the section: “Why did I not die at birth?” (v. 11) and “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” (v. 23). Job is mystified by his current circumstances, and here he wonders whether he would have been better off in the darkness of never being born at all rather than having the light of life result in such suffering and grief. The vocabulary of Job’s lament is the beginning of a theme throughout the dialogue with his friends in which darkness and light will be used to refer to both death and life as well as to what is hidden and what is revealed.
JOB—NOTE ON 3:1–2 Introduction. Job cursed the day of his birth because it represented the path of his entire life, which had led to his present distress.
JOB—NOTE ON 3:3–10 Job Curses His Birth. In skillfully crafted poetry, Job rues the moment of his birth—in distinction from the birth itself: he will continue to see life as a divine gift (see note on 10:8–13), and he does not ever appear to be suicidal. Rather, he wishes that reality had been different, and that he would not have seen the light of day.
JOB—NOTE ON 3:8 Aspects of ancient myth are sometimes referenced metaphorically in Scripture, often in images of God’s power or authority (cf. 26:12). By referring here to those who set a curse upon a day by calling upon Leviathan (see note on Ps. 74:14), Job calls for their incantations as one more piece of his lament against the day of his birth.
JOB—NOTE ON 3:11–19 Job Longs for Rest. Job’s futile curses progress from the day of his birth to the first moments of life. Just as he wishes the day was darkness and time erased, so too he wishes that life had been death (vv. 11–12, 16), for at least that would have brought peace in the company of the dead (vv. 13–15, 17–19).
JOB—NOTE ON 3:13–19 Job describes death as rest from the toil of life by picturing its effect on persons both high and low in society, and wishes he had joined all who were already in this state of rest rather than being born. In vv. 13–15 Job refers to the kings and princes who labored to obtain wealth and build cities but now lay without them in death. In vv. 16–19 Job focuses on the way death removes the constraints of social position, focusing attention particularly on the small and the slave, and those who have been weary or prisoners.
JOB—NOTE ON 3:20–26 Job Laments His Suffering. The final sequence of “why” questions reflects Job’s current miserable state, carrying forward the themes of light (vv. 20, 23) and death (vv. 21–22). Musing on those who dig for treasures (v. 21b), Job anticipates the terms in which some of his puzzles will be solved in the poem on “wisdom” (see ch. 28).
JOB—NOTE ON 3:23 In his accusation, Satan argued that Job was upright only because God had put a “hedge” of blessing around him (1:10). Here in the opening lament of the dialogues, Job refers to his sustained life amid inscrutable circumstances of suffering as rendering him one whom God has hedged in. Satan’s contention is disproved through Job’s continued faithfulness. Job’s overall lament of his situation is something which God both reproves (see chs. 38–41) and commends (42:7).
JOB—NOTE ON 4:1–25:6 The Friends and Job: Can Job Be Right before God? The main section of the book contains the dialogue between Job and the three friends that opens with Job’s initial lament (3:1–16) and then alternates between speeches by each friend (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) and responses by Job. The dialogue consists of two full cycles containing a speech by each friend and response by Job (4:1–14:22; 15:1–21:34). Job appears to cut off Bildad in the midst of his third speech (22:1–25:6), which is followed by a lengthy section of Job’s final argument (26:1–31:40). In his opening response, Eliphaz initiates what will become a recurring question and theme for the speeches of the friends: “Can mortal man be in the right before God?” (4:17; see also 9:2; 15:14; 25:4). The friends assume that both Job’s circumstances and his response to them are indications that he is in the wrong before God and needs to acknowledge and repent of his sin. However, Job will insist not only that he is not guilty of some hidden iniquity but that it is God who ultimately has allowed and governed his circumstances.
JOB—NOTE ON 4:1–14:22 First Cycle. Although Eliphaz begins this round of dialogues with a fairly gentle tone (4:3–4), sympathy for Job rapidly fades. The character of Job is consistently probed under the assumption that his moral failures account for his present plight (by Eliphaz in chs. 4–5, Bildad in ch. 8, and Zophar in ch. 11). Job responds in kind: bewildered by his suffering, he angrily argues (chs. 6–7), legally disputes (chs. 9–10), and resolutely rejects (chs. 12–14) the counsel of his friends.
JOB—NOTE ON 4:1–5:27 Eliphaz: Can Mortal Man Be in the Right before God? Eliphaz opens his first response with a brief affirmation of Job’s character (4:2–4) before asserting what he knows to be true about how God works (4:7–5:16) and articulating the core of the friends’ argument: in light of Job’s circumstance, he cannot be in the right before God (see 4:17). In light of his confidence that his description and inferences are correct, Eliphaz suggests that Job accept his circumstance as God’s reproof in order that he might be delivered (5:17–27). When the dialogue with the three friends is finished, Elihu will suggest something quite similar to Eliphaz, even if he takes a slightly different approach (see 32:1–37:24; and 36:7–21 in particular).
JOB—NOTE ON 4:8 those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. At the opening of his speech, Eliphaz states the dictum that the friends will relentlessly defend throughout the dialogue. For them this proverb is unequivocal—it is true in all circumstances in the same way. Character can be judged by circumstances.
JOB—NOTE ON 4:10–11 Typical of wisdom exponents, Eliphaz turns to nature to demonstrate his truth. Even an animal as mighty as the lion is incapable of altering the operation of natural law to protect its own young. A man like Job cannot alter the function of moral law any more than the lion can alter natural law.
JOB—NOTE ON 4:12–21 In his first speech, Eliphaz describes the event (vv. 12–16) and content (vv. 17–21) of a vision. The implied heavenly source of the vision is meant to grant authority to the message, which centers on the opening question: “Can mortal man be in the right before God?” While the vision has been typically read as belonging to Eliphaz, some interpreters have argued that it should be understood as a vision originally reported by Job, which is then quoted by Eliphaz. The primary impetus for interpreting the vision as a quotation is the argument that the recurring question of v. 17 (see 9:2; 15:14; 25:4) is in tension with the theology of Eliphaz and the friends (i.e., they are arguing precisely that a righteous person can be in the right before God). While interpreting the vision as a quotation offers a solution if there is in fact a conflict, it lacks the support of the typical features found in Job that would mark a quotation in the text (e.g., there is no attribution of the speech to Job, nor has Job said anything like this up to this point) and creates other interpretative difficulties. Nevertheless, this view is set out here to present both interpretative options for readers of Job.
JOB—NOTE ON 4:17–18 The opening questions of v. 17 present an interpretative difficulty: what do they mean and what is their function in the dialogue? Are they Eliphaz’s way of reminding Job that all creation has been affected by sin? Are they Job’s questions (see note on vv. 12–21) asking whether it is possible to live in such a manner as to receive only good things from God? Neither of these possibilities appears fully satisfying: the first because Eliphaz would then be arguing that what has happened to Job is a consequence that should be expected by all people, including himself; the second because it is not the purpose of Job’s lament to ask whether it would have been possible so to live as to avoid his circumstances. A literary key for answering the question is found in the function of the prologue. The content of the heavenly dialogues (1:8; 2:3) and the comments of the narrator (1:1–5, 22; 2:10) place the evaluation of Job’s character at the forefront for interpreting the book as a whole. In the dialogue of chs. 3–31, the friends are seeking to judge the nature of the very thing to which the reader has been made privy: God’s evaluation of Job. The tension of the dialogue begins with Eliphaz’s vision, which functions as a response to Job’s initial lament (3:1–26): How can you presume that you are in the right? Eliphaz argues that if even angels are found at fault before God, then the fact of compounded and devastating suffering should lead Job, a mortal man, to seek God for help rather than presuming the right to protest against him (see 5:8).
JOB—NOTE ON 4:19–21 Eliphaz follows the opening question to Job with an extended description to illustrate his greater-to-lesser argument. If angels are held guilty (see v. 18), then how much more so are mortals who dwell in houses of clay (v. 19), who perish forever without anyone regarding it (v. 20), and who die … without wisdom (v. 21)?
JOB—NOTE ON 5:1 After Eliphaz presents what he regards as the weight of his vision (see 4:17–21), he asks rhetorically if there are any creatures left on earth (anyone) or in heaven (the holy ones) to whom Job can presume to appeal.
JOB—NOTE ON 5:6–7 Eliphaz reinforces his previous point (see 4:8) by returning to the language of agriculture: affliction and trouble do not grow out of the dust or ground, but out of what is sown from the day a person is born.
JOB—NOTE ON 5:16 The wicked sit in stunned silence at the reversal of their fortune. As is the case in several places in the dialogues, the second line of the verse (injustice shuts her mouth) is similar to a line from the Psalms (see Ps. 107:42, “the wickedness shuts its mouth”). Eliphaz implies in this section (Job 5:8–16) that Job should reconsider the reversal of his circumstances as representing God’s just purposes (see v. 17).
JOB—NOTE ON 5:21 The reference to the lash of the tongue is included in a list of troubles that threaten a person’s life (vv. 19–26) along with famine, war, danger of wild beasts, and anything that might endanger the peace of flocks, family, or person (e.g., disease, disaster, etc.). Eliphaz uses the numerical saying (“from six … in seven”) to draw particular attention to the final element: if Job will accept his situation as God’s discipline, he will be spared from his trouble and brought to “a ripe old age” (v. 26).
JOB—NOTE ON 6:1–7:21 Job: Life Is Futile. In his first response, Job longs that his life would be cut off (6:9) so that he could rest from his suffering, knowing that he had not denied God (6:10). Job found his life unbearable on account of the empty comfort offered by his friends (6:14–30) and what he describes as the continued watchfulness of God (7:11–21). The speech as a whole shows a remarkable progression. Job moves from first-person soliloquy in 6:2–13 (continuing his introspective mode from ch. 3), shifting to second-person (plural) address to speak directly to the friends (for the first time) so as to question the nature of their “comfort” (6:14–30). Then Job relapses into first-person reflection on the futility of his life (7:1–6), before a transitional movement (7:7–10) now in second person singular (to Eliphaz himself). Finally, the pivotal 7:11 introduces Job’s first direct address to God (7:12–21).
JOB—NOTE ON 6:8–9 Although Job lamented his birth (in ch. 3), only now does he express a hope for death (at God’s hand, not his own) to alleviate his suffering.
JOB—NOTE ON 6:10 When Job says, “I have not denied the words of the Holy One,” he is referring, at least in part, to the fact that he has not concealed something that is out of accord with what God desires of his servants—something that Eliphaz had implied in his first response (see 5:17).
JOB—NOTE ON 6:14 After Eliphaz suggests that Job should consider his suffering as an indication that he has been a fool (see 5:3ff.), Job argues that one who withholds kindness from a friend is himself acting out of accord with wisdom (i.e., forsakes the fear of the Almighty).
JOB—NOTE ON 6:15 A torrent-bed is a wadi, a depression or rift in the rocks that gathers water from cloudbursts or melting ice, which races down the slope. Desert travelers could not carry sufficient water; they depended on rains or melting snow, which quickly dried up in the hot sun.
JOB—NOTE ON 6:19 Both Tema and Sheba continue the southeastern setting of the book (cf. 2:11).
JOB—NOTE ON 6:25–26 If upright words are used properly, they can function to reprove a person, discouraging him from taking a foolish path (v. 25). However, Job argues that as a despairing man he is pouring out his complaint before God and that his friends assume wrongly that his words (v. 26) reveal something in need of their rebuke. As the dialogue progresses, Job will increasingly argue that the aim of his friends’ rebuke misses him entirely. Bildad will echo Job’s reference to his own speech as wind in the opening lines of the response that follows (see 8:2).
JOB—NOTE ON 6:28–30 For the first time, Job directly asserts before God his innocence, which requires his vindication. Although this claim is directed to the friends, Job will soon repeat it to God—by implication in 7:20, and then throughout his speeches with ever-increasing insistence (cf. 10:5–7; 13:16–18; 27:1–6; 29:1–25; 31:1–40).
JOB—NOTE ON 7:11 In the initial response to each friend, Job primarily addresses his friends first (6:1–7:10) before turning to offer further lament and complaint to God (vv. 12–21). The three parallel statements of this verse (I will …) mark the transition from Job’s response to Eliphaz to his response to God. That transition is also represented by the change in reference to God from the third person (e.g., “he” in 6:9) to the second (e.g., “you” in 7:12). Similar statements mark the major transition in Job’s initial responses to Bildad (10:1–2) and Zophar (13:13–17).
JOB—NOTE ON 7:12 Job asks whether God considers him to be something as large or powerful as the sea or a sea monster because he feels his suffering is disproportionate to the weight of his being. In the literature of the ancient Near East, the sea is often described or personified as a threat to the created order that needs to be contained or conquered (see 26:12; 38:8–11). “Sea” (Yam) and “sea monster” (Tannin) are both known figures from Canaanite religion: Yam as the power contesting supremacy with Baal, and Tannin as one of the chaos monsters (cf. Ps. 74:13; Isa. 51:9).
JOB—NOTE ON 7:16 I loathe my life. Job will declare his rejection of his life again with the same verb in 9:21. When Job is fully confronted with the mystery of God, he will reject his words using the same verb (“I despise myself,” 42:6). The verb is repeated across these verses to contrast Job’s changed attitude as he comes to recognize that he had given up on understanding what his own life and circumstances meant in a manner that assumed more than he could possibly see or know.
JOB—NOTE ON 7:17–18 The opening line of v. 17 (What is man, that you make so much of him) echoes the thought of Ps. 8:4 (“what is man that you are mindful of him”). However, where Psalm 8 marvels at how humanity has been crowned with glory by God, Job laments what he describes as the burdensome weight of God’s watchful presence crushing him as a mortal being (Job 7:20).
JOB—NOTE ON 8:1–22 Bildad: The Wisdom of the Sages. Bildad immediately begins with a stern rebuke: Job’s words are a tempestuous wind (see 6:26), and whatever has come upon his children or upon Job himself has to be right, because God does not pervert justice (8:1–7). If Job will simply listen to the wisdom to which Bildad is pointing him, he will remember that the wicked do not endure (vv. 8–19), and that God will surely restore Job if he is truly blameless (vv. 20–22).
JOB—NOTE ON 8:4–6 After the rhetorical questions of v. 3, Bildad presents two conditional statements to Job that are meant to represent the necessary consequences of God’s justice. The first (v. 4), though set as a conditional, assumes that Job’s children have suffered because of their sin. The second is then meant to call Job to remember that if he will repent (v. 5) and if he is blameless (v. 6), then God will spare him from the end that his children have suffered.
JOB—NOTE ON 8:8–10 If Eliphaz based his counsel on the night vision (see note on 4:12–21), here Bildad appeals instead to the tradition of the fathers.
JOB—NOTE ON 8:11–19 Typical of wisdom literature, Bildad uses an analogy from nature to illustrate his point regarding the vulnerability of the wicked. Papyrus and reeds grow quickly in the wetlands to a height of 15 feet (4.6 m) or more, but are also the most vulnerable of plants, dependent on a constant supply of water. Other plants are deeply rooted in rocky soil, but they can be uprooted, leaving no trace of their presence. The way of the wicked is precarious and futile.
JOB—NOTE ON 8:20–22 In his conclusion, Bildad asserts two things: if Job were a blameless man God would not have rejected him (v. 20); and the tent of the wicked will not stand for long (v. 22). Job will question the truth of each assertion: If a man were blameless, how could he show himself to be right before the God of justice (see 9:2)? And if shame and disaster are the fate of the wicked, how is it that the wicked so often appear to prosper in relative safety (see 12:6; 21:7)?
JOB—NOTE ON 9:1–10:22 Job: How Can a Mortal Be Just before God? Job accepts the truth of both God’s justice and his promises to the upright (9:2), but in light of his friends’ suggested accusations, he feels caught. Job wonders how he could plead his case before God when there is no one who would be able to arbitrate the case (9:3–35). Here Job’s speech is relentlessly legal: ch. 9 is framed by the term contend (Hb. rib, 9:3; 10:2), and legal terms are liberally sprinkled throughout the chapter (e.g., 9:2, 3, 14, 19, 20, 32, 33). Thus Job laments before God the weight of suffering in his life (10:1–22).
JOB—NOTE ON 9:1–2 When Job says, “I know that it is so” (v. 2), he is most likely affirming that he also believes what is at the core of Bildad’s response: God is just, and he will not reject the upright (8:3, 20). However, given these truths and how the friends have interpreted his circumstances, Job slightly modifies the original question of Eliphaz’s dream and asks, But how can a man be in the right before God? If God is just and Job is in fact innocent of the foolishness or wickedness his friends suggest, how can he go about arguing his case?
JOB—NOTE ON 9:3–10 Job does not respond further to the specifics of Bildad’s argument but instead describes the difficulty of anyone arguing a case before God (vv. 3–4), given his power and strength (vv. 5–10). The form of the Hebrew verse is significant: it is a “participial hymn.” The name of such poems derives from the Hebrew verb form used in vv. 5–10; they typically offer praise to God for his mighty acts in creation (e.g., Psalm 136; Jer. 10:12–13; Amos 4:13; 5:8–9; 9:5–6). Here, however, like the inversion of Psalm 8 in Job 7:11, Job uses the form to declare what he perceives as God’s uncreative power (see also 12:13–25). Verse 10 of ch. 9 repeats yet another line from Eliphaz (see 5:9), but Job uses it to reinforce the seeming futility of attempting to contend with God.
JOB—NOTE ON 9:13 Rahab, like Leviathan (see 3:8; cf. 7:12), is the name of a beast from the myths of the non-Israelite peoples. Here the name seems to represent specifically the forces of chaos (see note on Isa. 30:6–7). Earlier Job had asked that those ready to demolish Leviathan would remove his day from the universe (cf. Job 3:8). Only God is able to vanquish such powers, as Job here confesses. Job cannot hope to contest God, however just Job may judge his case to be.
JOB—NOTE ON 9:15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him. Job states here (and again in v. 20) his contention that his friends have applied their theology to him and his circumstances in a way that traps him. Job’s friends have argued that God is just, that he does not reject the blameless, and that Job’s circumstances indicate he is hiding something for which he ought to repent. Job agrees that God is just, but feels there is no room for him to make the case that he is innocent of what his friends presume.
JOB—NOTE ON 9:20 The form of the verb translated would prove me perverse makes it possible for the subject to be either he (referring to God) or “it” (referring to Job’s mouth). For either possibility, the point is the same. If his mouth would prove him to be in the wrong, it is because Job thinks that God would find his words wanting. When Job says, “I am blameless” (also in v. 21), he unknowingly echoes God’s description of him in the prologue (1:8; 2:3).
JOB—NOTE ON 9:21 I regard not myself. Job seems to be saying that he does not care whether he lives or dies. He is prepared to risk his life to find justice (13:14).
JOB—NOTE ON 9:22–24 While Job’s friends have assumed that his suffering is evidence of some hidden wickedness, Job argues that from what is observable, both the blameless and the wicked are destroyed (v. 22), fall prey to disaster (v. 23), and suffer from the perversion of justice (v. 24)—and that all of these things are governed, ultimately, by God (if it is not he, who then is it?).
JOB—NOTE ON 9:32–35 When Job says, “there is no arbiter” in v. 33 (or wishes that there were one, see esv footnote), his words are partially an indictment against his friends, who have not served him well as comforters (while upholding both the character of God and the integrity of Job). In light of his friends’ failure, Job longs for someone who could hear his case impartially, and for the removal of the threat of further suffering (v. 34), so that he could speak freely (v. 35).
JOB—NOTE ON 10:1–2 As in 7:11, Job explicitly announces his turn to address his Creator directly.
JOB—NOTE ON 10:3 Job’s awareness that he is the work of God’s hands provides the theme for the verses that follow.
JOB—NOTE ON 10:8–13 Through a sequence of vivid metaphors, Job describes his own conception and gestation as an act of God’s creation. Job shares the wonder of the psalmist (Ps. 139:14) and the insight given to the prophet (Jer. 1:5a), but he employs it here to press his claim of innocence before God.
JOB—NOTE ON 10:15–17 Job states both sides of the dilemma he faces: if he is guilty of what his friends have inferred, it will not be good for him (v. 15, woe to me!); if he is in the right (v. 15; see also 9:15, 20), he feels he has no strength to walk upright because of the weight of his suffering (10:15) and the threat of further affliction (vv. 16–17).
JOB—NOTE ON 10:18–19 Why did you bring me out from the womb? Job caps the argument begun in v. 3 and returns to his earlier sentiments. He should have been stillborn (3:10); if he had to be born, he should have been left alone and allowed to die in peace (7:16–17). Why should God make so much of humans that he would continually watch over them in such misery?
JOB—NOTE ON 10:21–22 The repetition of the terms darkness and shadow and the adjectives used to modify them (thick, deep) in Job’s description of death underscore his plea for a reprieve from suffering while he still has days left in the light of life.
JOB—NOTE ON 11:1–20 Zophar: Repent. Like Bildad (see 8:1–22), Zophar responds with a sharp challenge to what he sees as empty words and presumption in Job (11:2–12). He then calls Job to prayer and repentance, promising that God will transform Job’s circumstances if he will simply step back from his pride (vv. 13–20). Zophar’s indignant speech makes an implicit connection between moral standing and knowledge of God: since Job’s situation marks him out as morally corrupt (cf. vv. 5–6, 11, 14), he cannot know God rightly.
JOB—NOTE ON 11:5–6 Zophar shares Job’s longing that Job might have a direct audience with God, but for exactly the opposite purpose. Job longs for vindication; Zophar is certain that Job would be condemned.
JOB—NOTE ON 11:7 There is irony in this verse that will be revealed to Zophar only in the events of the epilogue (see 42:7–9). Although he accusingly asks Job whether he is able to discover the depth and extent of God’s work, it is Zophar who presumes that God’s purposes in Job’s suffering are transparent enough to rebuke Job and call him to repent.
JOB—NOTE ON 11:12 Although there is a question about how the second line of this proverb relates to the first (i.e., whether the first line is being compared to the impossibility in the second of a wild donkey giving birth either to a man or to a domesticated colt), the function of the proverb in Zophar’s speech is clear. He is calling Job to stop insisting on foolishness, because, like the path of the stupid man, it will never lead to understanding. Zophar calls Job instead to turn away from the insistence that he is in the right and to seek God in prayer and repentance (vv. 13–20).
JOB—NOTE ON 11:20 Zophar’s final statement about the fate of the wicked stands in stark contrast to what he describes in vv. 13–19 as the benefits God will bestow on Job if he will only repent. Zophar’s statement is meant to warn Job against continuing in his current path (see v. 18 and the contrast relating to hope).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:1–14:22 Job: A Challenge to the “Wisdom” of His Friends. In the longest response of the dialogues with the three friends, Job shows his growing frustration with their claims to wisdom (even though he agrees with them about God’s supreme power; 12:1–13:2) and with the conclusions they have drawn (13:3–19); then, once again, he addresses his lamentation directly to God (13:20–14:22).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:2–3 Job reveals his frustration through sarcasm. In what may be a rejoinder to Zophar’s wish that God would tell Job “the secrets of wisdom” (see 11:5–6), he states, “wisdom will die with you” to make the point that his friends speak as though they alone were wise (12:2). However, says Job, “I am not inferior to you” (v. 3; 13:2), and he sets out to illustrate the lack of depth and breadth in their approach (12:4–25).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:4–6 Job reproves his friends by pointing out that their approach to wisdom seems to ignore the realities of both the suffering of the righteous (like his own, v. 4) and the safety of the wicked (v. 6). Furthermore, his friends have not acted as true wisdom requires, but have instead expressed contempt rather than comfort from their place of being at ease (v. 5; see also 6:14).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:6 The tents of robbers are at peace. With the reference to the image of the “tents” of the wicked, Job may have intended a counterpoint to one or more of his friends’ earlier assertions (see 5:24; 8:22; 11:14).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:7–9 As further reproof, Job suggests that his friends ought to inquire of the animals and plants of creation, which all know that it is ultimately the LORD who governs all of life.
JOB—NOTE ON 12:9 the hand of the LORD has done this? This line is the only occurrence of the name of God (Hb. YHWH) in Job outside of the prologue and chs. 38–42 and is identical to a line in the book of Isaiah (Isa. 41:20).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:13–25 In this section, Job asserts that the scope of God’s providential governing of the world is much more extensive than what his friends assume by their responses. Again as in 9:3–10, Job employs the distinctive form of the “participial hymn” (see note on 9:3–10) in an ironic fashion. Here Job asserts God’s sovereign control over nature and its destructive powers before employing the participial form to survey God’s supreme prerogative over human rulers (12:17–24).
JOB—NOTE ON 12:17–21 The whole of social order and any sphere of leadership within it are subject to God and his purposes: counselors, judges, kings, priests, advisers, elders, princes, and soldiers.
JOB—NOTE ON 12:18 He looses the bonds of kings, i.e., kings lose their thrones. The bond may be thought of as the royal sash or belt, which is replaced by that of an ordinary robe.
JOB—NOTE ON 12:21–24 He pours contempt on princes (v. 21a) and makes them wander in a trackless waste (v. 24b) are identical to the two lines of Ps. 107:40. The psalm speaks of judgment against oppressive rulers; in Job these phrases serve as a part of the description of God’s sovereign governing over all social order. Loosens the belt is a common metaphor for disarming a soldier.
JOB—NOTE ON 12:23 he enlarges nations. This may have the negative sense of “disperse” or “scatter,” making the second line antithetical to the first. Sometimes God makes nations great and then destroys them, while other times he first scatters a nation and then gives it peace or leads it in an orderly way.
JOB—NOTE ON 13:3–19 Before he turns to God in lament, Job argues that his friends have both misdiagnosed him (he calls his friends “worthless physicians” in v. 4) and misrepresented God (see vv. 7–10).
JOB—NOTE ON 13:4 you whitewash with lies. The image of applying “whitewash” is not itself negative, but refers to the process of repairing something that is cracked or broken (e.g., a pot) by smearing it with a material that would both bond the pieces and seal the cracks. Job’s contention with his friends is that they have sought to “whitewash” the situation with what they ought to know is not true about either Job or God.
JOB—NOTE ON 13:6–10 Job uses law and present court language to make his case—he is stating his arguments. The friends are denigrating Job in their arguments and showing favoritism to his divine opponent in making their case for him (v. 8). In the end God does rebuke the friends, exactly as Job had warned (42:7–8).
JOB—NOTE ON 13:11 Will not his majesty terrify you? Job questions whether his friends have taken seriously the glory and power of God in how easily and lightly they have spoken on his behalf. In a later response, Job speaks of his own fear at the thought of facing the majesty of God (31:23).
JOB—NOTE ON 13:15 Job is aware of the force of his own argument in 12:17–25, yet cannot avoid taking the risk that God will slay him. I will hope in him. “Hope” is to wait for something; waiting may or may not be patient, and it may or may not be with a positive expectation. Job is impatient and expects his life will end shortly. Job will not wait; he is willing to risk his life to make his case against God (but cf. 14:19).
JOB—NOTE ON 13:16 the godless shall not come before him. The salvation Job hopes for is that he will yet be able to make the case for his innocence before God. He anticipates that God will yet be his redeemer (see 19:25).
JOB—NOTE ON 13:20 Only grant me two things. Job abruptly shifts from warning his friends to pleading his case with God.
JOB—NOTE ON 13:26 you write bitter things against me. Job is referring to God’s accusations against him, not to an indictment to punish him with suffering.
JOB—NOTE ON 13:27 you set a limit for the soles of my feet. The metaphor refers either to confinement (“set a limit for”) or to a tracing of movement (“marked”; see esv footnote). Both concepts are present: Job’s feet are in the stocks, and God watches everywhere he goes. Both cannot be true at the same time, but both express God’s vigilant pursuit of Job.
JOB—NOTE ON 13:28–14:22 In this section of lament before God, Job moves from referring primarily to his own situation (13:20–27) to focus on the nature of life for any mortal.
JOB—NOTE ON 13:28 Man wastes away. The speech takes another abrupt turn. Job’s thoughts on mortality are introduced with a proverb, which uses a pronoun as a generic reference to the human race (see esv footnote).
JOB—NOTE ON 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job describes human life as hard and short, a theme already declared to the friends in 7:1–10, and uses this question and answer to point out that no mortal is able to work outside of the limits that God has set (see also 14:5).
JOB—NOTE ON 14:7–14 Job laments the limits of mortality by contrasting the consequences of cutting down a tree (vv. 7–9) and the death of a man (vv. 10–14). There is hope (v. 7) for a tree that even if root and stump decay (v. 8), it may still grow again (v. 9). However, when a man dies, his life on earth is finished (see vv. 10, 12, 14). Thus, Job says that though a tree may sprout again (v. 7), he must look for renewal (v. 14) within the days of his life on earth (the Hb. words translated as “sprout again” and “renewal” are related).
JOB—NOTE ON 14:10 where is he? Since the focus of this section is mortal life, Job’s question does not specifically pertain to his thoughts on life after death (which he possibly alludes to in v. 12) but to the fact that there is no chance for vindication through restored life on earth after suffering and death.
JOB—NOTE ON 14:15–22 Although Job longs for renewal in which God would secure his path and forgive his sin (vv. 15–17), he concludes that just as the elements wash away rock and soil, so God will wear down a man over the course of his life (vv. 18–22).
JOB—NOTE ON 14:19 Here Job evokes the language of his earlier description: although a tree may have “hope” of renewal (v. 7), God can remove the hope of man through the persistent eroding effect of suffering and difficulty.
JOB—NOTE ON 15:1–21:34 Second Cycle. The positions established by each participant harden in the second round of speeches. Once again Eliphaz (ch. 15), Bildad (ch. 18), and Zophar (ch. 20) align Job’s suffering with the punishment due to the wicked. Job’s responses (chs. 16–17; 19; 21) typically show his refusal to accept responsibility for his situation (e.g., 19:2–6) and characterize the wicked not as sufferers but as those who prosper despite their careless godlessness (e.g., 21:7–16).
JOB—NOTE ON 15:1–35 Eliphaz: Job’s Words Condemn Him. In his second response, which initiates the second round of dialogues, Eliphaz dispenses with his earlier commendation of Job’s character (see 4:3–6) and opens by accusing him of speaking out of iniquity rather than wisdom (15:2–16). The second half of the response is a more aggressive assertion of the content of Eliphaz’s first speech: the consequence of wickedness is suffering, and thus suffering indicates that a person is wicked and should not protest innocence (vv. 17–35).
JOB—NOTE ON 15:2 Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge … ? It is possible that Eliphaz is asking whether he as a wise man should respond to Job, but the contents of vv. 3–6 indicate that the function of this question is to dispute Job’s claim to be wise (see 12:3; 13:2). Eliphaz argues that Job’s words reveal someone who is full of wind rather than wisdom.
JOB—NOTE ON 15:4 fear of God. As the esv footnote says, the Hebrew lacks the words “of God.” However, the reference to God in the second half of the verse and the thrust of vv. 2–6 underscore that this is precisely what Eliphaz is inferring: Job has become careless in his complaint to God and is doing away with the very thing that will bring him relief (namely, repentance and humility before God) and thus is hindering his meditation from being heard.
JOB—NOTE ON 15:8 Have you listened in the council of God? The question ought to appear ironic to the reader, who has been made privy to the conversations represented in the prologue (1:7–12; 2:2–6). Eliphaz is himself guilty of the very sort of presumption for which he criticizes Job: he has concluded wrongly that Job’s suffering is a transparent indicator of God’s judgment.
JOB—NOTE ON 15:14–16 Eliphaz revisits the central questions of his first response (see 4:17–21): if God does not trust fully even his heavenly servants (15:15), how can Job, as a mere man (v. 14), continue to protest his innocence (v. 16)?
JOB—NOTE ON 15:20–35 In a section intended to function like the description of the foolish man in his first response (see 5:2–5), Eliphaz portrays the wicked man to implicate Job. Central to the portrayal are the images of one who is terrified as judgment comes to him amid his seeming prosperity (see 15:21, 24, 27, 32–33). Eliphaz is hoping that Job will see himself in the images and turn from defending himself to repentance.
JOB—NOTE ON 15:27 The doubled use of fat invokes a well-known image for proud, complacent disregard of God (see Ps. 73:7; 119:70; cf. Job 16:8 and note).
JOB—NOTE ON 15:31–35 These verses contain an example of Job’s claim that his friends are “withholding kindness” from him (see 6:14; 12:5). With the presumption that his perspective is clear and right, Eliphaz mercilessly chooses vocabulary that focuses on the loss of Job’s offspring as indication of God’s judgment: emptiness (15:31), his branch will not be green (v. 32), the early loss of grape or blossom (v. 33), his company is barren (v. 34), and conceive, give birth, and womb (v. 35). Given what the reader knows about Job, this section ought to instill humility on the part of any person who seeks to pursue another with rebuke—and compassion for Job as one who endured not only the loss of his children but also the presumptuous, compounded, and condemning “comfort” of his friends.
JOB—NOTE ON 16:1–17:16 Job: Hope for a Sufferer. Job begins by pointing out that his friends have failed as comforters (16:2–5), even though comfort was their original purpose for coming to him (see 2:11). He then describes the seeming paradox of his situation: God is the one who has brought these things upon him, and although others take this as a sign of his judgment, Job trusts that God can testify on his behalf (16:6–17:9). In the final section Job presents his friends with the consequential dilemma of their words: their condemnation leaves death as Job’s only hope, but to long for death is to give up on any possibility of vindication and is no hope at all (17:10–16).
JOB—NOTE ON 16:4–5 Job is not suggesting that he would act like his friends if the roles were reversed. He is trying to get his friends to put themselves in his place so that they will see how little comfort they are offering.
JOB—NOTE ON 16:8 To counter Eliphaz’s description of the “fat” wicked person (15:27), Job points to his own shriveled and emaciated state. It testifies that God’s hand is against him (cf. Ps. 6:2; 22:17; also linking the motif of hostile stares; see Job 16:10), but not that he is guilty (v. 17).
JOB—NOTE ON 16:12–14 Job uses the imagery of warfare, and what happens to a city and its inhabitants when it is attacked or breached, to express how he feels broken open by God.
JOB—NOTE ON 16:15 sewed sackcloth upon my skin. Job’s constant grief is like a coarse cloth stitched to his skin, a reality of acute and unending pain. laid my strength in the dust. Lit., “buried my horn in the ground.” The horn of an animal represents strength, power, and nobility. Every semblance of dignity and worth has been taken from Job.
JOB—NOTE ON 16:16 deep darkness. Lit., “shadow of death.” Job’s gaunt eyes are those of a dying man.
JOB—NOTE ON 16:19 Who is Job’s witness … in heaven who testifies on his behalf? One of the “holy ones,” derided by Eliphaz (5:1)? Job’s tentative plea for an “arbiter” (9:33) grows in confidence here with the knowledge that God alone is the source of his suffering. So too will his realization grow that God alone is his hope for vindication. This may not be clear to Job yet (thus 16:21 distinguishes the “witness” from God), but it will be so eventually; cf. 19:25.
JOB—NOTE ON 17:5 Since vv. 1–4 are likely addressed to God (vv. 3–4 directly), in v. 5 Job may be asking God to remember what his friends have done, warning the friends of the consequences of such actions, or both. Many interpreters think that v. 5 quotes a proverb of the day, which if true bears a message similar to other warnings in the OT against being a false witness (see Deut. 19:18–19; Prov. 19:5, 9).
JOB—NOTE ON 17:7 all my members. Job’s entire body is exhausted from grief and pain; this summarizes his theme from 16:7–16.
JOB—NOTE ON 17:10–16 In both lines of v. 12, Job appears to refer to the perspective of his friends: they argue that if he will simply repent, God will restore him and turn his night into day (see 5:17–27; 8:5–7; 11:13–20). However, Job argues that simply accepting the perspective of his friends would be to make his bed in darkness (17:13) because it would be a response void of the faith that trusts that God is both sovereign and just (and thus knows the truth) and of the hope (v. 15) that he will be vindicated by God. Throughout the dialogue in chs. 3–31, Job is essentially arguing God’s character back to God from the belief that he is just. In so doing, Job the sufferer is structuring his lament as ultimately a posture of hope.
JOB—NOTE ON 18:1–21 Bildad: Punishment for the Wicked. Like Eliphaz, Bildad omits any of the appeals to Job in his first response (see 8:5–7) and opens by venting his frustration (18:2–4): Who is Job to maintain his position and criticize the words of his friends? The remainder of Bildad’s response is an unyielding description of the end of the wicked (vv. 5–21) that appears to be motivated as much by his reactive irritation as by any further desire to correct Job.
JOB—NOTE ON 18:5–6 Bildad is likely responding to Job with the repeated images of the light of the wicked (flame, lamp) going dark (put out, does not shine) to make the point that Job ought to take the “darkness” (see 17:12–13) as precisely such a warning (see also 18:18).
JOB—NOTE ON 18:7–10 Bildad uses the vocabulary of a trap (net, snare, rope) in these verses to argue that what Job describes as God breaking him apart (see 16:7–14) is better described as Job suffering the consequences of his own sin (his own schemes throw him down, 18:7).
JOB—NOTE ON 18:11–14 The vocabulary of these verses has led some interpreters to explain the references to the firstborn of death and the king of terrors as allusions to figures in either Babylonian or Ugaritic mythology. While it is difficult to discern whether such an allusion is intended, it is clear that Bildad is personifying the process and finality of death: calamity is wearing the wicked person (i.e., Job) down, which will lead ultimately to the finality of death itself (v. 14). When Bildad uses the phrase “the firstborn of death,” he may be intentionally picking up the familial references from Job’s response and turning them against him (see 17:14).
JOB—NOTE ON 18:14–21 Bildad refers throughout this section to the destruction of both the house (e.g., tent, vv. 14–15; habitation, v. 15; dwellings, place, v. 21) and the household (memory, name, v. 17; posterity, progeny, and survivor, v. 19) of the wicked in order to assert that Job’s circumstances show he is one who knows not God (v. 21).
JOB—NOTE ON 19:1–29 Job: My Redeemer Lives. Job begins by asking his friends how long they will persist in accusing him and why they feel no shame for the manner in which they have done so. Even if he has done wrong, Job maintains that it is God who has brought about his circumstances (vv. 2–6). Job laments that although he cries out for justice, his continued suffering has brought only isolation and indifference from his family and friends (vv. 7–22). Job concludes with the wish that his belief in God’s vindication of him would be inscribed in rock as a permanent witness (vv. 23–27) and with a warning to his friends against continuing to pursue him with such anger and certainty that they are right, lest they fall under the very sort of judgment they assume has fallen on Job (vv. 28–29).
JOB—NOTE ON 19:2 How long … ? Job opens by echoing the question from the first line of each of Bildad’s speeches (see 8:2; 18:2) to draw attention to how relentless his friends have been in condemning him.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:3 Job uses the phrase ten times as a figure of speech indicating a full measure rather than 10 actual interchanges (see also Gen. 31:7, 41; Num. 14:22).
JOB—NOTE ON 19:6 The verb translated put me in the wrong is the same verb that Bildad used in 8:3 (translated as “to pervert”). Job uses this verb to make his point clear: even in the very protesting of his innocence, Job is affirming his belief that God is just, but he also continues to affirm that his suffering is not because of his sin and that God is the one who has ultimately allowed or brought it about.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:7 I cry out, “Violence!” The prophet Habakkuk opens his oracle with a similar statement and complaint before God (see Hab. 1:2–4).
JOB—NOTE ON 19:8 He has walled up my way. God’s fence had at first kept trouble away from Job (1:10), but now it was a wall that gave Job no way of escape (cf. 3:23). The very scale of his suffering is, for Job, a sign of its divine origin.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:13–19 Viewed apart from Job’s suffering, these verses are a remarkable register of the social world of the ancient Israelite patriarch. Within Job’s anguished state, he takes a complete inventory of his social isolation. An explicit link is also forged between the poetic dialogue and the story told in the prose frame; cf. v. 14 and 42:11.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:20 Although by the skin of my teeth has become an idiomatic expression in English for just barely accomplishing or avoiding something, the intended referent of the Hebrew phrase is not so clear (i.e., what is meant by the “skin” of the teeth is difficult to determine). However, the general sense of the English phrase, which has typically been explained as having its origins from this verse in Job, fits the context well: Job’s body bears the effects of both his emotional and physical suffering and gives witness to the fact that he has narrowly escaped his own death.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:22 Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? If his friends were so convinced that Job had sinned and that his obvious physical suffering represented God’s judgment, he asks them why they continue their relentless pursuit of him. From Job’s perspective, his friends have chosen to use whatever he has left as means to torment him (see v. 2), and he is pleading that they might show him mercy (see v. 21).
JOB—NOTE ON 19:23–24 Job wishes that his words could be recorded as a witness that would remain when he is dead. He refers to two methods of recording that were common in the ancient Near East. inscribed in a book. This process could refer either to writing in a scroll or book or to an inscription on a clay tablet, all of which represent writing materials that would have been more or less portable. engraved in the rock. Job also wishes that his words could be inscribed in a more public and permanent fashion. An example of this type of monument is preserved in the inscription of Darius I at Behistun (modern Bisitun, in western Iran), on which the cuneiform signs were inlaid with lead in order to facilitate the reading of the inscription from the road below. Although it is not commented on explicitly in the book itself, the writing of the book of Job is in many respects a fulfillment of his wish in a way that both includes and extends beyond the purposes Job had in mind.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:25–27 For. Job is stating here the grounds for wishing that his words would be recorded (vv. 23–24). I know that my Redeemer lives (v. 25). The Hebrew noun (go’el) translated “Redeemer” is the same word used frequently in the OT to refer to a “kinsman-redeemer,” who had both rights and responsibilities for vindicating a family member (see Ruth 4:1–6). In the OT, God says that he will “redeem” his people from slavery (Ex. 6:6) and is thus later referred to as “the Redeemer of Israel” (Isa. 43:14; 44:6). For God as an individual’s “Redeemer,” see Gen. 48:16; Ps. 19:14 (and see note on Ps. 25:22). Job’s description of his “Redeemer” as one who “lives” (Job 19:25) and his following reference to “God” (v. 26) indicate he believes that God is the one who ultimately will vindicate him. yet in my flesh I shall see God (v. 26), whom I shall see for myself (v. 27). Because of the content of Job’s earlier laments and the difficulty of the Hebrew in v. 26, interpreters have questioned the likelihood that Job is expressing in these verses a belief that God will redeem him after death. However, while the focus of Job’s dialogue and lament is the desire that what he believes to be true “in heaven” (i.e., before God) would also be shown to be true on earth, such a desire makes sense only if it is grounded in a belief that God is his Redeemer and that he will vindicate Job even in death.
JOB—NOTE ON 19:28–29 Job tells his friends their certainty that the root of the matter is found in him has led them to pursue him in wrath. Job uses the image of the sword to refer to passing judgment and to warn the friends against their presumption that they can understand, and actually wield, the sword of judgment that belongs to God alone. In calling his friends to be careful how they judge him lest they fall under the punishment of the very sword they presume to wield, Job suggests something similar to what Jesus will teach explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matt. 7:1–5).
JOB—NOTE ON 19:29 wrath brings the punishment of the sword. The wrath of the friends is a “crime of the sword,” a sin deserving of punishment (cf. 31:11, 28). False testimony demands the same penalty that would have been given the accused (Deut. 19:16–19); the accusations of the friends were worthy of death. know there is a judgment. The Hebrew for this line is elliptical; it seems to mean either that there is a judge or that there is a judgment, as the esv renders. The appearance of the Redeemer, says Job, would be bad news for his friends.
JOB—NOTE ON 20:1–29 Zophar: The Wicked Will Die. In his second response, Zophar opens with a brief expression of frustration (vv. 2–3), presumably in response to Job’s insistence that God has brought about his circumstances and Job’s belief that God will yet vindicate him. The remainder of the response is one long description of the short and insufferable life of the wicked, by which Zophar intends to implicate and rebuke Job (vv. 4–29).
JOB—NOTE ON 20:3 censure that insults me. Zophar may be referring to Job’s response to his last speech, in which Job sarcastically criticized his friends and claimed that he was not their inferior (see 12:2–3).
JOB—NOTE ON 20:6–7 Zophar warns Job that whatever height a wicked man may have achieved will not change the fact that, when his end comes, it will be quick and complete. “Where is he?” Zophar may be recasting the question Job asked in 14:10 as what could well be ironically and justifiably spoken about Job if he does not pull back from his insistence that he is innocent.
JOB—NOTE ON 20:10–21 Zophar argues that neither the wicked man (vv. 12–19) nor his offspring (v. 10) will enjoy the benefits of what he has acquired, because he has gained it through the oppression of others (vv. 19–21). Instead, his children will be forced to beg from the poor (v. 10), who were some of the very people their father oppressed to gain his wealth (v. 19). The description also includes several images that describe the way of the wicked as something like gluttony: their hunger for evil is unrestrained and insatiable (vv. 12, 13, 20, 21), which leads to whatever has been gained instead rotting them from the inside out (vv. 14–16).
JOB—NOTE ON 20:23–25 Although Job had referred to his circumstances as equivalent to God attacking and breaking him open (see 16:12–14), Zophar uses similar imagery of sword and arrow to assert that it is God who will indeed strike the wicked with the wrath of his judgment. Zophar is likely hinting that Job ought to take his own description of feeling “broken open” as an indication of God’s impending judgment rather than of any injustice from God.
JOB—NOTE ON 20:27 The heavens … and the earth. Although it is not his purpose, Zophar hints here at the central tension of the book: what is the relationship between what is true before God and what takes place on earth? The friends wrongly assume that Job’s circumstances on earth are a transparent indicator of his guilt before God in heaven. Job has governed his life by a belief that God is indeed just, and his lament reflects his desire that God’s justice would be manifested more than it is in his present life on earth. In the end, Zophar will realize that what the heavens will reveal is his own error, not Job’s iniquity (see 42:7–9).
JOB—NOTE ON 21:1–34 Job: The Wicked Prosper. Job’s response closes the second cycle of the dialogue with his friends by focusing directly on the assertion that the wicked suffer immediate and lasting grief, which is at the heart of the argument of each of his friends and is the thrust of Zophar’s most recent response (see ch. 20). Job argues that the wicked do not self-destruct in their greed but rather live in grand style, and are respected and honored in death (21:7–21, 27–34). In the midst of his response, Job questions whether his friends truly understand life on earth; he does this in a manner that makes it seem as if God needs to be instructed (vv. 22–26).
JOB—NOTE ON 21:7–16 Job argues not only that the wicked prosper and their offspring flourish (vv. 7–8), but also that their lives often appear unhindered by any of the signs of judgment that the friends so confidently describe (vv. 9–13)—a perspective that shares much with Psalm 73. Furthermore, Job points out that the evidence for what he is claiming is not even concealed by the wicked themselves, who choose to follow their pursuits with open indifference to and even proclaimed defiance against the Lord (Job 21:14–16).
JOB—NOTE ON 21:17–21 Job challenges Bildad’s earlier assertion that the lamp of the wicked is put out (see 18:5–6) by asking how often this is true (21:17–18). Furthermore, Job’s friends have argued that God’s judgment of the wicked falls also on the children of the wicked (cf. 20:10), but Job replies that, if the wicked person does not see, drink, and know his own punishment, it has little effect as judgment, because he is dead and without care for what happens after him (21:19–21).
JOB—NOTE ON 21:22 In previous speeches, Eliphaz had asked how Job could presume to be in the right when God judges even the heavenly beings (see 4:18; 15:15). Here Job recasts the truth of Eliphaz’s assertion so as to question the approach of his friends: their presuming to discern events on earth as transparent indicators of judgment contradicts the facts of experience in such a way as to suggest that God needs to be reminded or instructed in their knowledge. However, since God is the judge of those who are on high and unseen, the friends should be all the more cautious of presuming to discern exhaustively what God’s purposes are simply based upon what they see on earth.
JOB—NOTE ON 21:33 all mankind follows after him. In addition to the argument that a person’s circumstances are not necessarily a transparent indicator of blessing or judgment, there is an additional warning embedded in Job’s description: many people are fooled by the external circumstances of the evil man (who is the subject of this description, see v. 30ff.) into following him in life and honoring him in death.
JOB—NOTE ON 22:1–25:6 Third Cycle. The consistent pattern of the first two cycles unravels in this last dialogue. Eliphaz begins by depicting Job’s life as a constant stream of wicked activity (ch. 22), in contrast to the perception Job offered in his first speech (cf. 4:6–7). Job’s reply (chs. 23–24) strongly implies that the divine power that has touched him is typically capricious and destructive. Bildad offers the beginning of a reply (ch. 25, only six verses), before Job interrupts with a further assertion of the impenetrable mystery of divine power (ch. 26, beginning Job’s final reply to his friends). No room appears in this cycle for a contribution from Zophar. If there was any comfort in the friends’ attending to Job, it has entirely evaporated. The two parties have argued themselves increasingly apart, revising earlier judgments as they do so.
JOB—NOTE ON 22:1–30 Eliphaz: Job Is Guilty. In his final speech, launching the uniquely shaped third cycle, Eliphaz revisits earlier themes with renewed fervor and finality: he questions whether Job has any basis to lament before God (vv. 2–4), asserts again that Job’s circumstances reveal his abundant evil (vv. 4–11), compares Job’s words to those of the wicked (vv. 12–20), and calls him once more to repent so that he might find his ways established by God (vv. 21–30).
JOB—NOTE ON 22:2–4 Eliphaz opens his response with three rhetorical questions that ask Job whether it makes any sense that God would bring suffering on one who is wise (v. 2), blameless (v. 3), or who fears him (v. 4). Eliphaz argues that, since wisdom is profitable for the person and not somehow profitable for God (vv. 2–3), there could be no purpose for suffering other than to indicate judgment and a need to repent (v. 4). In framing his response this way, Eliphaz inverts Job’s own earlier reasoning that any sin of his could be of no consequence to so great a God (7:20). He also continues to assert that Job’s circumstances on earth are transparent and exhaustive indicators that can and ought to be read only as signs of God’s judgment.
JOB—NOTE ON 22:5–11 Eliphaz assumes that Job’s circumstances reveal significant evil in his life, and thus he feels justified in describing the likely ways that Job has sinned.
JOB—NOTE ON 22:6 Eliphaz’s first accusation evokes the law that a person should not take someone else’s life necessities to secure a debt—like a cloak (see Ex. 22:26; Deut. 24:17–18) or a mill or millstone used to grind grain for food (see Deut. 24:6).
JOB—NOTE ON 22:9 In his description of Job’s presumed mistreatment of widows and the fatherless, Eliphaz speaks in terms similar to the warnings in the law against such practices (see Ex. 22:22; Deut. 24:17) and to prophetic oracles of judgment (see Isa. 1:17; Jer. 22:3; Ezek. 22:7).
JOB—NOTE ON 22:13 In response to Job’s continued insistence that the wicked prosper on earth and that his circumstances are not the consequences of sin, Eliphaz asserts that Job is guilty of implying that God is so high that he is unable to “know” or judge life on earth. A question similar to the one that Eliphaz puts in Job’s mouth here (What does God know?) is used of the wicked in Ps. 73:11, but it comes amid a lament over their prosperity and safety that is itself similar to Job’s complaint (see Ps. 73:1–17). Eliphaz wrongly equates Job’s attitude toward God with that of the wicked.
JOB—NOTE ON 22:17–18 In these verses Eliphaz essentially quotes some of Job’s words from 21:14–16. However, where Job was arguing that the wicked prosper in spite of open rebellion, Eliphaz is asserting that their prosperity and rebellion are momentary and that the wicked are “snatched away before their time” (22:16). Thus, when Job said, “the counsel of the wicked is far from me” (21:16b) in order to distance himself from the rebellion and practices of which his friends accused him, Eliphaz uses the same words to cast Job’s position on these matters as itself the counsel of the wicked (22:18).
JOB—NOTE ON 22:21 Implicit in the plea for Job to “Agree with God” is Eliphaz’s presumption that his interpretation of Job’s circumstances is equivalent to God’s. In particular, it seems Eliphaz thinks his argument in vv. 17–18 should be a compelling enough reason for Job to relent and finally agree that his suffering is rooted in his wickedness.
JOB—NOTE ON 22:30 This verse is another instance of unintended irony in the words of the friends. Eliphaz is suggesting that Job’s repentance would lead to his being able to intercede and bring deliverance even for one who is not innocent. What Eliphaz does not know is that he stands in need of the very deliverance he describes and that it will in fact come through Job’s intercession on his behalf (see 42:7–9).
JOB—NOTE ON 23:1–24:25 Job: God Is Hidden. Job is tired of arguing his case before his friends, which is revealed in part by the way he largely ignores the content of Eliphaz’s most recent response. Instead, he expresses his longing to be able to come before God directly, because Job trusts that his ways are truly known and would be vindicated by God (23:1–17). In the second part of the speech, Job laments that judgment does not appear to come more evidently on those who oppress the needy for their own gain (24:1–25).
JOB—NOTE ON 23:2 The opening phrase of Job’s response is probably directed at his friends more than at God. When he begins with “Today also …” Job is implying that after all of the dialogue with his friends they have neither attended to him well nor persuaded him of his guilt. my hand is heavy. Although it is not typically stated in this manner, the images of the hand “being strengthened” (e.g., Isa. 35:3) or “falling” (e.g., Jer. 6:24) are used in the OT to refer respectively to a person being either encouraged or discouraged.
JOB—NOTE ON 23:3–7 The last time Job used this kind of legal language, he was convinced that God would both ignore and condemn him (cf. 9:3, 16, 19). Here, his convictions are just the opposite: if Job were granted an audience, God would pay attention (23:6), and Job would be acquitted (v. 7).
JOB—NOTE ON 23:10–12 In his wish to present a case before God, Job refers to the manner of his life in vocabulary typical of the wisdom literature. He trusts that God knows the way that he has walked (v. 10): Job has persevered in God’s steps, he has not turned aside from his way (v. 11), and he has valued God’s commandment and the words of his mouth more than provision for his own physical well-being (v. 12).
JOB—NOTE ON 23:13–17 Although he has carefully considered his way (vv. 10–12), Job believes it is ultimately God who will bring about his purposes through what he appoints (vv. 13–14; for similar statements, see Prov. 16:1, 9; 20:24; Jer. 10:23). Consequently, Job confesses that he is terrified at the thought of God’s presence (Job 23:15–16). Still, even in the darkness of not being able to understand his path or God’s purposes fully, he is compelled to continue his lament: yet I am not silenced (v. 17).
JOB—NOTE ON 24:1–25 Job has persisted in arguing against his friends’ assertion that the wicked are judged transparently and immediately on earth, but he also clings to his belief in the justice of God as the ground for his lament and hope for vindication. In this part of his speech, Job wishes that God’s governing of the world would be more apparent (v. 1). He offers a further description of the acts of the wicked (vv. 2–4, 9, 13–17, 21), the consequences on their victims (vv. 5–12), the seeming blindness of his friends to this reality (vv. 18–20), and the lack of any apparent judgment (vv. 22–25). Job does not address God in this response, nor does he seem necessarily to be responding directly to his friends as much as he is speaking exhaustedly in their presence.
JOB—NOTE ON 24:1 Job asks a question that represents two perspectives: Why is it that the wicked do not seem to experience times of judgment and that the righteous never see his days? “The day of the Lord” is a common phrase in the OT that refers to the coming judgment of the Lord on the nations (see Joel 2:1ff.; cf. note on Amos 5:18–20), but also represents the full revealing of God’s glory and the restored beauty of his people. A “day of the Lord” is an occasion on which God the Almighty shows his hand.
JOB—NOTE ON 24:2–12 Job’s description of the injustices of the wicked (vv. 2–4) and the effects on their victims (vv. 5–12) appears to emphasize the severity and visibility of these things, which ought to be evident to observers on earth as well as to God. The conclusion in v. 12, that God ignores these evils, is precisely opposite the conclusion drawn in a passage with similar concerns, Lam. 3:31–36.
JOB—NOTE ON 24:9 Some interpreters have suggested that the Hebrew word translated “against” in the second line (‘al) should be understood instead as “child” (‘ul), with the sense “they take the child of the poor as a pledge,” because it would be more consistent with the focus on the fatherless child in the first line. However, the translation “against” does not exclude the possibility that the second line may refer to a child being taken as a pledge, neither does it require it as the sole referent. Still, v. 3 and vv. 10–12 seem to suggest that what was taken in pledge was the means by which the poor family could have been clothed and fed (which, of course, would be equivalent in its effects to taking a child from a nursing mother).
JOB—NOTE ON 24:13–17 These verses are linked together by a play on the senses of the word “light” and its related vocabulary. Job begins by describing those who rebel against the light as those who oppose wisdom and righteousness—not knowing its ways or walking in its paths (v. 13). Job then describes how this manner of life is revealed in the light of day and the dark of night: the murderer gets up before it is light to pursue injustice and continues to prowl around at night (v. 14); the adulterer assumes that in the twilight his actions will go unseen (v. 15); thus they each bring ruinous effects on other households at night, while seeking to guard themselves during the day (v. 16). Job implies that their reversal of the typical times of sleep and labor (deep darkness has become morning) is itself a manifestation of the fact that they do not know the light and instead have chosen foolishly to become friends with the terrors of deep darkness (vv. 16–17).
JOB—NOTE ON 24:18–20 The function of these three verses in Job’s speech is difficult to determine. The statements seem to be more consistent with the viewpoint of the friends than of Job. It is for this reason that v. 18 begins with “You say,” which is not explicit in the Hebrew but is inferred from the content and possible purpose of these verses. If this is Job’s purpose, then he is once again restating the type of assertions that his friends have made. He does so to show that such statements seem to willfully ignore the actual state of affairs on earth (for another example, see 21:28, where “For you say” is explicit in the Hb.). Another possible interpretation is to take the statements following 24:18a as Job’s description of what he wishes would come to pass: e.g., “let their portion be cursed in the land” (v. 18b). If Job’s intention is to express the wish that judgment would be more apparent, then he is possibly taking up the theme of the questions that opened the section (see v. 1).
JOB—NOTE ON 24:18 “Swift are they on the face of the waters” may represent a saying or idiom from the time of the writing, but the referent and meaning of the phrase are not clear. It may be that “swift” refers to the fleeting life of the wicked either described by the friends or desired by Job (see note on vv. 18–20).
JOB—NOTE ON 24:21 Job focuses on the barren, childless woman and the widow to recast once again the truth embedded within his friends’ accusations (see 22:9). The care of widows, orphans, and sojourners is a central theme in the instruction of the law (see Ex. 22:21–27; Deut. 24:17–22). Such care is to be both a priority of faithfulness on the part of God’s people, and, if injustice in these areas went unaddressed, an indicator that Israel had forgotten her own history. Even though justice in these areas is supposed to be what God desires, the obvious existence of injustice seems unhindered by any sign of judgment. If what Job’s friends assert to be true has any merit, judgment ought to be evident on those who exploit widows to their own gain.
JOB—NOTE ON 25:1–6 Bildad: An Unanswered Question. Bildad’s words represent the final speech of the three friends. By returning to the central question from Eliphaz’s initial response (v. 4; see 4:17–19), Bildad reveals the dilemma within which the friends have constrained themselves and the posture they have embodied toward God and Job as a result. Since the friends have argued their theological understanding and application as representing God’s perspective, they have consistently thought of the choice before them as being that either God or Job must be in the wrong. On account of Job’s suffering and their own confidence about being able to interpret it, the friends have never really brought their own viewpoint under scrutiny or given thought to the possibility that they may be wrong in both their defense of God and their pursuit of Job.
JOB—NOTE ON 25:4 How then can man be in the right before God? This question is repeated several times throughout the dialogue between Job and his friends in slightly different forms: it is asked originally by Eliphaz (4:17), recast and used by Job in his second speech (9:2), repeated and reinforced by Eliphaz (15:14), and returned to again here by Bildad in the final speech of the friends.
JOB—NOTE ON 26:1–31:40 Job: The Power of God, Place of Wisdom, and Path of Integrity. The dialogue between Job and his three friends has a pattern in which each speech by Job is followed by responses from the friends in a particular order: Eliphaz, Bildad, and then Zophar. After two full cycles of the dialogue, it appears that Job is tired of the repetitive and relentless nature of his friends’ responses. He signals the end of the dialogue by cutting Bildad’s third response short (i.e., it is only six verses long) and precluding any third speech from Zophar. Job concludes with a lengthy monologue in which he takes up several subjects related particularly to the theme of what is hidden and what is revealed. The friends’ presumed knowledge does not necessarily promote justice nor take into consideration the extent of the mystery of God’s ways (26:1–14). Job cannot agree that his suffering reveals wickedness, and he wishes that those who oppose him would be like the wicked when they are finally cut off (27:1–23). Job describes the value, mystery, and place of wisdom (28:1–28). Job also longs for the past (29:1–25), laments the present (30:1–31), and finishes with a plea that the character of his life would be revealed for what it is and judged accordingly (31:1–40). Given the perceived tensions with Job’s earlier statements on the wicked in ch. 27, and the apparently independent status of the wisdom “hymn” in ch. 28, some argue that voices other than Job’s should be heard speaking these passages. On the other hand, it is possible to follow the text as it is. After all, 31:40 says, “The words of Job are ended,” which seems to clearly attribute these speeches to Job. These questions are taken up in context below.
JOB—NOTE ON 26:1–14 The Mystery and Majesty of God’s Ways. Job criticizes his friends for what is likely an unintentional but still unacceptable consequence of their approach (vv. 1–4). He questions their certitude by alluding to how much is hidden from human perspective simply in the existence and divine government of the created world (vv. 5–14).
JOB—NOTE ON 26:2–3 How you have helped … saved … counseled … ! With these three statements Job is suggesting that the presumed theological orthodoxy of Bildad (and the other two friends) rings hollow due to its lack of any actual protection for him or reflection on the justice they pronounce. In their defense of God, the friends have neither actively helped the poor and needy (since all they have done is wrongly accuse Job who has been their protector), nor have they bothered to discern the potentially disastrous consequences of their approach (judging the circumstance of those in need to be the result of their own sin).
JOB—NOTE ON 26:4 In light of the implied negative answer to the statements of vv. 2–3, Job asks his friends to examine whose help and whose breath has been behind their words, lest they assume resolutely but wrongly that they have spoken on God’s behalf.
JOB—NOTE ON 26:5–14 Job alludes to some obvious areas of knowledge that are open before God but concealed from human perspective, in order to warn his friends against their continued presumption that they know God’s purposes in Job’s disastrous circumstances.
JOB—NOTE ON 26:5–10 Job uses the repeated vocabulary of this section to emphasize things that are clearly known to God but are hidden from human cognizance. The state or realm of the dead is not visible to humanity (under the waters, Sheol, and Abaddon), but it is naked and has no covering before God (vv. 5–6). Likewise, the description of the creation or existence of the natural world implies that other things may be hidden: the heavens appear perched over the void, and the earth appears to hang on nothing (v. 7); a cloud often binds up, covers, and spreads over another element of the heavens and itself is not split open (vv. 8–9); and it is God who has set the limits for all of these divine artifacts (v. 10).
JOB—NOTE ON 26:9 The Hebrew word for “full moon” (cf. Ps. 81:3) is a homonym (same sound and spelling but different meaning) with the word for “throne” (see esv footnote). If either the latter sense is intended or the author is employing intentional ambiguity in using the word, then the image may refer to the heavens as concealing God in the place of his rule.
JOB—NOTE ON 26:11–14 The images in these verses all focus on God’s power and echo a similar description in Job’s first response to Bildad (see 9:5–13). The created world reveals not only that some things are hidden (26:5–10) but also the vast implications of God’s power as the one who created and governs everything. Rahab (v. 12) and the fleeing serpent (v. 13) refer to the same being and make the point that God is and will be sovereign over any powerful figure opposed to him (note that in Isaiah, God uses “Rahab” as another name for Egypt, see Isa. 30:7). If it is by God’s power and understanding that he rules creation (Job 26:12), Job concludes by asking how it is that, as one who merely hears the thunder of his power, any person could presume to understand it (v. 14).
JOB—NOTE ON 27:1–23 A Claim to Integrity and a Wish for Vindication. Job refuses to agree that his friends are right, and he maintains that his circumstances are not an indication of undisclosed sin (vv. 1–6). In images similar to those his friends have used against him, Job wishes that his adversaries would be considered as the wicked are before God (vv. 7–23).
JOB—NOTE ON 27:1 The first part of Job’s long response is marked with the heading typical of the dialogues, “Then Job answered and said” (see 26:1 and the verse that introduces each response from 4:1ff.). The heading here and in 29:1 (And Job again took up his discourse) helps to bind together the entirety of chs. 26–31 as Job’s final speech of the dialogue, which functions as a closing statement as well as a direct response to his friends.
JOB—NOTE ON 27:5 you. The Hebrew is plural; Job is addressing his friends collectively.
JOB—NOTE ON 27:6 By asserting that he will hold fast to his integrity, Job echoes the Lord’s description of him in the prologue (see 2:3).
JOB—NOTE ON 27:7–23 Because these verses seem more consistent with the speeches of Job’s friends, it has been suggested that they may be misplaced and ought to be interpreted as belonging to Bildad’s speech in ch. 25. However, the similarity to the speeches of the friends can also be understood to be part of Job’s purpose. Unlike his three friends, Job is not referring solely to what the wicked receive on earth, but wishes that his “enemy” would be like the wicked “when God cuts him off” and “takes away his life” (27:8). If Job is actually blameless before God, then those who have been his adversaries ought to consider how God weighs their own actions in light of the judgment they have described.
JOB—NOTE ON 27:7–8 Job declares that if he is right to maintain his integrity (see vv. 2–6), then he also wishes that his adversaries would be considered as the wicked and unrighteous (v. 7). However, unlike his friends, who assume that judgment on the wicked is generally experienced in life on earth and is transparent to observers, Job says there is no hope for the wicked when God cuts him off and takes away his life (v. 8).
JOB—NOTE ON 27:11 concerning the hand of God. Hand (Hb. yad) is often a metaphor for power, but justice is the question that concerns Job and his friends. Eliphaz claimed to speak for God in correcting Job (cf. 22:26–27). Job in turn has declared that he received revelation from God that he could not deny (6:10); he will not conceal what is with God (27:11), i.e., the thoughts of the Almighty.
JOB—NOTE ON 27:13 The Hebrew phrase translated “with God” is often explained as being better interpreted “from God,” because it would provide a parallel with the second line of the verse. The proposed change is minimal and consists of one letter in the Hebrew text being understood as accidentally appended to this phrase from the word that precedes it. However, since v. 11 has the similar phrase “with the Almighty,” the sense of v. 13 in context does not require the change. The two phrases also appear central to Job’s point: if his integrity is actually what is true “with God,” then Job’s friends ought to consider whether they are the ones who stand in danger of the judgment that they have described.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:1–28 Where Is Wisdom Found? In a magnificent poem that plays on the theme of the dialogues regarding what is hidden and what is revealed, Job reflects on the value, mystery, and place of wisdom. The poem is structured around a question that is repeated with slight variation: “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?” (vv. 12, 20). Although man has shown great skill in mining the earth for its hidden and valuable resources (vv. 1–11), where is he to look for wisdom, which is beyond measure in its value and outside of the sphere of mere discovery (vv. 12–22)? God is the one who knows its place and by whom wisdom is both given and governed (vv. 23–28). Interpreters have questioned whether ch. 28 is actually Job’s speech, since it might appear to dampen the weight of God’s response in chs. 38–41. However, even though the poem appears to be self-contained, the description of wisdom in the chapter is consistent with the grounds for Job’s lament. It represents what will be shown to be true of him in the end: Job is not reproved because he has promoted folly (unlike his friends) but rather because the inferences he has drawn from wisdom have not properly reflected what he is able to know in light of what he believes to be true.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:1–11 The structure of the Hebrew phrases brings the earth (v. 5) and its valuable treasures into focus in this section. Although it takes considerable effort (indicated by the multifaceted references to darkness in v. 3, far away locations in v. 4, and rock in vv. 9–10), human industry has developed ways to mine the earth for its precious elements (silver, gold, iron, copper, sapphires) or cultivate it (grain for bread). In these realms, whatever is hidden is brought out to light (v. 11).
JOB—NOTE ON 28:3 Job has used the phrase deep darkness in various images throughout the dialogue with his friends (see 3:5; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; and also 10:22). Here the phrase describes the success of human industry. As the remainder of the chapter makes clear, Job uses the description to question, if not implicitly rebuke, his friends for presuming they have been similarly successful either in discovering wisdom’s place in the world or discerning its presence or absence in the heart of another.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:4 Mining practices in the ancient Near East have been neither fully discovered nor studied enough to determine precisely what is being pictured in this verse. The word translated “shafts” is typically used to refer to the gully of an intermittent stream (just as the word translated “channels” in v. 10 is typically used to refer to either a “river” or as the proper name “the Nile”). Archaeologists have discovered horizontal mining shafts, some examples of which are also intersected by vertical shafts that were likely used to vent mining operations. Whether it is these vertical shafts that hang in the air or not, the purpose of the images is clear: the threefold description of the remote location of the mine (away from where anyone lives, forgotten by travelers, and away from mankind) further indicates the difficulty and effort involved in humanity’s pursuit of precious materials.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:7–8 Neither the birds of the sky (represented by the falcon’s eye) nor the animals of the earth (represented by the lion) have any knowledge of endeavors like mining. It is a uniquely human accomplishment and application of skill.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:11 Job’s description of human industry in vv. 1–11 is summed up well in the second line of this verse: the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:12–22 The questions of vv. 12 and 20 frame this section, which describes the value of wisdom and the place of understanding as unknown to mankind. The fact that they are unknown is emphasized by the number of negative statements in vv. 13–19: e.g., not know, not found, not in … with me, cannot be bought … weighed … valued, cannot equal it (twice), nor can it be exchanged … valued.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:15–19 These verses contain multiple references to gold and to other precious stones such as blue sapphire (lapis lazuli), black or white onyx, opaque shiny crystal, bright coral, and yellow chrysolite (topaz). All are expensive and difficult to obtain, yet none are comparable to the value of wisdom.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:21 In contrast to the earlier description about “the paths” of mining and industry (see vv. 7–8), the place of wisdom is hidden from the eyes of all living creatures on the earth, including humans, as well as from the birds of the air.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:22 The reference to Abaddon and Death here is likely playing off Job’s earlier description of them as a realm that is also hidden from human observation (see 26:5–6). These two names may be simple personifications, or they may use ideas from pagan myths (e.g., with Death [Hb. mawet] corresponding to the Canaanite deity Mot) to show that these other powers cannot find wisdom.
JOB—NOTE ON 28:23–28 The closing section of the chapter makes it clear that only God understands and knows wisdom and how it is acquired (v. 23). He is the only one before whom both the earth and the heavens (v. 24) are fully revealed because he is the one who created them (vv. 25–27). Wisdom is thus given by God (it came through his speaking) and defined in relation to him (v. 28): the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom (see Prov. 1:7; 9:10) and to turn away from evil is understanding (see Prov. 3:7; 16:6). Job may be rebuking his friends for their treatment of him, implying that they have not acted in a way consistent with the fear of the Lord (cf. the way that the book characterizes Job himself, Job 1:1).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:1–31:40 The Path of Job’s Life. Job reflects on his life in the past (29:1–25), the present (30:1–31), and what he wishes would be revealed and vindicated in the future (31:1–40). Much as Job’s soliloquy in ch. 3 launched the dialogues with his somber reflection on his origins, so too chs. 29–31 conclude the dialogues with Job’s reflections on his current and future state.
JOB—NOTE ON 29:1–25 Job laments the loss of the past, when he felt that he had the presence and protection of God (vv. 1–6) as well as the respect of all those among whom he lived (vv. 7–25), which matched the way he lived his life in pursuit of righteousness and justice (see vv. 12–17).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:1 And Job again took up his discourse. See note on 27:1.
JOB—NOTE ON 29:2–6 Job refers to days in which he felt the presence of God guarding (when God watched over me, v. 2) and guiding him (when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked, v. 3). Job felt that it was a time when he was in his prime (or with the esv footnote, autumn days, which would be the season of harvest) because the friendship of God (v. 4) was evident on his household (v. 5) as well as his flocks and fields (v. 6).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:6 washed with butter. Job was renowned for his herds of cattle and his olive groves that produced riches from the earth.
JOB—NOTE ON 29:7–25 Job opens and closes this section with a description of the honor that he once received from people in every sphere of influence (vv. 7–10, 21–25). Job’s wish is not simply that he would regain his honor but that the grounds for this respect would be remembered (beginning with because in v. 12): he not only spoke in wisdom but also embodied what it required by caring for the poor and fatherless (v. 12), for the one about to perish, and for the widow (v. 13), and by protecting and preserving the needy (vv. 14–17). When Job looks back on what he thought the course of his life would be, he uses several images, including that of a well-rooted tree that would continue to bear fruit, benefiting himself and others (vv. 18–20; for similar images of the benefits of a faithful life, see Ps. 1:3; Prov. 3:18; Jer. 17:7–8).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:11–13 The blessing that Job received from others (v. 13; see also v. 11) signified the blessing he had been to those who had no one to help them and needed to be delivered (v. 12). In the next section, Job will lament his need for someone to deliver him, now that he is the one crying for help (see 30:20, 28; also 30:24).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:14–16 Job had been a person of significant means (see v. 6) who used his possessions and influence as if he were clothed with righteousness and justice (v. 14) to provide what the blind, lame (v. 15), needy, and those he did not know (v. 16) could not do for themselves. Job’s actions contrast with how he is treated now that he is in need (see 30:10–15).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:16 searched out the cause. Job took up legal cases even when there could be no possible benefit for him.
JOB—NOTE ON 29:17 The wicked are pictured here as if they hunt for victims like a predator. Job describes his actions on behalf of the needy as equivalent to breaking the fangs of the unrighteous, presumably because he exposed and unraveled the means by which they had snared the poor as their prey.
JOB—NOTE ON 29:20 Job is likely referring to the internal strength (my glory) and the external vigor (my bow) that were the mutual signs of the benefits of a life lived in wisdom.
JOB—NOTE ON 29:24 As one who utilized his means for righteousness and justice (vv. 12–17), the smile and light of Job’s face encouraged those without hope and reflected the character and presence of God (see “lamp” and “light” in v. 3).
JOB—NOTE ON 29:25 It is with some irony that Job refers to the past, when some listened for his words and did not speak afterward (vv. 21–22), and also to the way that he formerly lived like one who comforts mourners. His friends originally set out to comfort him (see 2:11) but instead became agitated with his words and ended up acting as his accusers.
JOB—NOTE ON 30:1–31 Job contrasts the honor of his past (29:1–25) with his present circumstances by describing the men who taunt him (30:1–8), their actions against him (vv. 9–15), and his own internal affliction (vv. 16–23) before a concluding section that references both his past acts of compassion and his present lack of hope or help (vv. 24–31).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:1–8 Job describes just how much of a reversal his current situation represents: although he had delivered the truly needy from the oppression of the unrighteous (29:11–17), those who presume to mock him as if he has received the judgment of the unrighteous are themselves needy, because of their own actions and foolishness (see 30:8).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:4 The plants mentioned here represent the food of desperation: saltwort is a low, struggling bush with thick, sour-tasting leaves; the broom tree is a shrub with long, straight branches, small leaves, and poisonous roots. Because the broom tree’s roots are both poisonous and known for their heat when burned (see Ps. 120:4), an alternate vocalization of the Hebrew is sometimes followed with the sense “for their warmth” (see esv footnote). However, the known quality of the broom tree’s roots may be used here simply to highlight the dire situation of these men.
JOB—NOTE ON 30:8 senseless. The Hebrew is lit., “sons of a fool” and infers further that the men being described are in some way morally responsible for their circumstances (see 2:10; cf. the description of the foolish in Prov. 1:7, 29–32; etc.).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:9–15 Although Job had restrained the unrighteous (see 29:12, 17), he describes those who now presume to deride him, casting off any restraint, as if they are taking advantage of an easy military conquest in which they sing and spit at his downfall (30:9–11) while building siege ramps against him, breaching his defenses, and looting him (vv. 12–15).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:11 In contrast to the past, God has loosed the cord that secured Job’s tent (cf. 29:4), and men of low esteem have taken the opportunity to unbridle their tongues (see esv footnote) and embolden their posture in his presence (cf. 30:9–10 with 29:7–11).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:14 amid the crash. The rabble storm upon Job, like a troop of soldiers pouring through a wide breach in a fortification. They continue uninhibited in their plunder.
JOB—NOTE ON 30:16–23 Job laments the isolation in which he now pours out his soul (v. 16) as one who wastes away without help (vv. 17–22) and waits for death (v. 23).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:16 my soul is poured out. An idiom for grief; cf. the psalmist in his longing for worship at the temple (Ps. 42:4).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:18 The description of Job’s solitary grief and disfigured clothes contrasts with his earlier image of being clothed with righteousness and justice for the sake of delivering those in need (see 29:14).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:20 Job feels that his present cry for help from God (also v. 28) is unanswered, which contrasts with the descriptions of Job’s earlier actions on behalf of others (see 29:12).
JOB—NOTE ON 30:24–31 Job concludes the section by picturing himself as being like one of those whose cries for help he used to answer (vv. 24–25) but who in his own distress has found evil where he hoped for good (v. 26), and isolation and mourning (vv. 27, 29–31) when he has called for help (v. 28).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:1–40 After contrasting the honor of his past (29:1–25) with the disdain he receives because of his circumstances in the present (ch. 30), Job confesses one last time that he has lived his life in the pursuit of righteousness because he believes that is how it should be lived before God, that turning from God’s way is without benefit, and that further curses should come on him if these things are not true. Job begins by affirming his commitment to fidelity and questions how he could break it (31:1–4). Sections that follow each open with a conditional statement implying that his life has not been patterned by what is described: stealing or coveting (vv. 5–8, 9–12), neglecting the needs of those both within his household and without (vv. 13–15, 16–18, 19–23, 31–32), trust in or worship of anything other than God (vv. 24–28), concealing hatred or sin (vv. 29–30, 33–34), or improper oversight of his land (vv. 38–40). Embedded in the end of this section is a final wish that the charges would be presented to him so that he could give an account (vv. 35–37).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:1–4 Job believes that his life is lived before and governed by the Almighty (v. 2), who does number all my steps (v. 4). His confidence in this fact is the grounds upon which he uses the same vocabulary to make his final wish that “the Almighty” might answer him (v. 35) and that he could give him “an account of all my steps” (v. 37).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:1 In affirming his moral purity, Job recalls a personal commitment he had made regarding what he would and would not gaze at, what he calls a covenant with my eyes. In particular, he professes purity in avoiding sexual lust: how then could I gaze at a virgin? The faithful reader would recognize the soundness of such a commitment, and Jesus teaches about such purity of desires (Matt. 5:28).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:5–7 Job’s references to the way he has walked (v. 5), to where his heart has led him (v. 7), and to whether he has turned aside from the way (v. 7) describe his life in images that evoke the profile of wisdom (e.g., see Prov. 4:10–19, 23–27).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:11–12 Job grounds his own caution against adultery (v. 9) in the warnings of its consequences—both in being punished by the judges (see also v. 28) and in its having ruinous and far-reaching effects like fire (see also Prov. 6:27–29). The reference to Abaddon (Job 31:12) signifies Job’s presumption that the way he has walked has consequences beyond the mere extent of all his earthly increase (see Prov. 7:21–27).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:13–15 Job did not reject the needs of his servants (v. 13) lest they should have a complaint against him (v. 14) for which he would have no answer for God (v. 15). Job will use this vocabulary again in his final plea that he would receive an answer from his “adversary” (v. 35; the Hb. term is related to the noun translated “complaint” in v. 14).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:16–23 Care for the poor, widow (v. 16), fatherless (v. 17), needy (v. 19), and sojourner (see vv. 31–32) is prescribed in the Pentateuch (see Ex. 22:21–27; Lev. 19:33; Deut. 24:17–18). Such action shows that someone understands that he or she lives with others before God and is called to fear him alone (Job 31:23). Job lived this way because he believed God weighed his actions, and he understood that calamity was the consequence for the unrighteous (see vv. 2–4).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:24–28 Job has guarded against both the idolatry of trusting the wealth that God has provided rather than trusting God (vv. 24–25), and the idolatry of worshiping what God has created (vv. 26–27). Job’s faithfulness in this matter is grounded in the fact that idolatry is to be punished by the judges as an action that is false to God above (see v. 12), as is adultery. This is the emphasis of Job’s final appeal: he has consciously lived his life as if it were open before and in service to the God of heaven and earth.
JOB—NOTE ON 31:31 “Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?” The question obviously calls for a negative response; those of Job’s household were always well fed. Offering food and lodging was of critical importance to secure strangers from the dangers of the streets at night.
JOB—NOTE ON 31:33 as others do. There may be an allusion here to the Genesis story, where Adam tried to conceal his sin from God (see esv footnote).
JOB—NOTE ON 31:35–37 Job wishes once again for an answer regarding his offenses (v. 35; see vv. 13–15), so that he might give an account of all my steps (v. 37) to the One who numbers them (see v. 4; the Hb. for “numbers” and “account” are related).
JOB—NOTE ON 32:1–37:24 Elihu: Suffering as a Discipline. The opening verses of this section introduce the person and perspective of Elihu (32:1–5) and are followed by an uninterrupted section of his speeches. These include an announcement of his intention to speak (32:6–22) and an initial challenge to Job (ch. 33), a general dispute against what Job has asserted (ch. 34), a description of Job’s place before God (35:1–16), and a lengthy section that describes and defends God’s majesty (36:1–37:24). Elihu is not addressed in the Lord’s speeches that follow immediately after his own (see 38:1–40:2; 40:6–41:34), nor is he referred to in the description either of the prologue (1:1–2:13) or the epilogue (42:7–17). Interpreters have differed on how to understand the function of Elihu’s speeches in light of this lack of explicit reference or evaluation. While the Lord’s response to Job will include some vocabulary and references that are similar to portions of Elihu’s speeches, he does not commend either Elihu’s suggested reasons for Job’s suffering or his anger against Job (see note on 32:2). See also the discussion of Elihu in the Introduction: Literary Features.
JOB—NOTE ON 32:1–5 Introduction: Elihu and His Anger. The brief narrative section preceding Elihu’s speeches indicates that Job’s three friends have nothing more to say to Job (v. 1), introduces Elihu (v. 2a), and describes his perspective on what has transpired (vv. 2b–5). The section contains repeated statements that indicate the manner in which Elihu takes up his speech: he “burned with anger” (vv. 2, 3, 5) because no answer had been given to Job (vv. 1, 3, 5).
JOB—NOTE ON 32:2 Elihu’s introduction includes a reference to his father and family that is more explicit than that of any of the three friends (see 2:11; and 4:1; 8:1; 11:1). The reference may be included for the way it signifies Elihu’s understanding of his role (e.g., Barachel may mean either “may God bless” or “God has blessed”) or possibly his need for further introduction in light of his youth.
JOB—NOTE ON 32:3 Although Elihu burned with anger against both Job and his friends (vv. 2–3), when the same phrase is used of the Lord in the epilogue, his anger burns only against the three friends because they had not affirmed what was right about the Lord, as Job had done (see 42:7).
JOB—NOTE ON 32:6–22 The Voice of Youth. Elihu’s opening speech is a repetitive declaration of what the opening narrative section has described (see vv. 1–5): Elihu has waited to speak because he is younger than the three friends, but now that it is clear to him that they do not have an answer for Job, he feels compelled to speak. Elihu directs this section primarily at the friends and emphasizes his right and intention to “declare my opinion” (32:6, 10, 11).
JOB—NOTE ON 32:8 Elihu plays on the words spirit and breath in his early speeches (see also 33:4; 34:14) in the way most likely to evoke Job’s earlier plea (see 27:2–3) as he asserts his own right to speak.
JOB—NOTE ON 32:18–20 As in v. 8, Elihu claims he is not speaking by choice but by necessity. Elihu may be thinking he is like a prophet, but the reader must judge whether he is right. (On the difficulty of assessing Elihu, see the discussion in the Introduction: Literary Features.)
JOB—NOTE ON 33:1–33 An Arbiter for Job. Elihu opens and closes this section with a call for Job to listen to his words and answer if he is able (vv. 1–7, 31–33). He then presents a summary of Job’s contentions regarding himself, his circumstances, and God’s seeming silence (vv. 8–13) before suggesting ways that God speaks in order to turn a person from the way that leads to death (vv. 14–30).
JOB—NOTE ON 33:1 Elihu frames his rebuke with a call for Job to listen to his words (also vv. 31, 33), which he likely sees as serving to fill the silence left by Job’s friends as well as to explain how God may be speaking on the very points where Job has claimed he is silent.
JOB—NOTE ON 33:2–4 Elihu appears to be evoking Job’s earlier statement where he declared that, as long as he had breath, his lips could not speak falsely by agreeing that his friends were right (see 27:2–6). Elihu plays on Job’s words (see also 32:8) to assert that what he has to say is equally an upright and sincere declaration.
JOB—NOTE ON 33:9 Elihu summarizes Job’s statements as if Job had argued that he was pure and without transgression. However, it is clear from Job’s regular practice of making burnt offerings that this was not his claim (see 1:5), which was focused instead on denying the suggestion that some hidden sin was at the root of his suffering. By mischaracterizing Job’s plea, Elihu ends up offering a similar argument to that of the three friends: God is greater than man (33:12) and thus he must have intended to warn or rebuke Job (vv. 14–30).
JOB—NOTE ON 33:11 puts my feet in the stocks. Elihu quotes Job verbatim (cf. 13:27). God had made Job his enemy, pursuing him like a leaf driven in the wind (13:24–25).
JOB—NOTE ON 33:14 For God speaks … though man does not perceive it. Elihu is suggesting that Job has not recognized and maybe even has ignored the ways in which God has spoken to him.
JOB—NOTE ON 33:18 Elihu repeatedly states that the purpose of God’s speaking to a person in the way he describes is to keep his soul from the pit (also vv. 22, 24, 28, 30). Thus he implies that Job’s suffering may be a corrective of his overall path rather than simply punishment for some hidden sin. However, given the Lord’s description of Job in the prologue (see 1:8; 2:3), Elihu’s suggestion seems very similar to, if not an even more severe condemnation than, the one offered by the three friends.
JOB—NOTE ON 33:19–22 The images that Elihu employs in this section are surely aimed at encouraging Job to see his similar physical state as signifying that God has spoken mercifully through his circumstances, to keep him from the path he was on (see v. 18).
JOB—NOTE ON 33:23–28 Elihu poses a hypothetical situation in which an angel or mediator might act on behalf of a person to deliver him (vv. 23–25), and he suggests that the appropriate response would be repentance and rejoicing (vv. 26–28). When Elihu tells Job that he should not fail to accept the correction because of the “greatness of the ransom” (36:18), he implies that the loss of all of Job’s possessions and family might be such a ransom for his deliverance (33:24).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:1–37 An Appeal to the Wise. Elihu sets out to dispute Job in a speech structured by its general statements of address. He is calling “wise men” to hear Job’s contention that he is in the right (vv. 2–9) and “men of understanding” to hear Elihu’s disputation of this claim (vv. 10–34), with both groups bracketed together as those who will agree with Elihu against Job (vv. 35–37).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:1–9 Elihu calls those who are wise to weigh Job’s claim that he is right and that God has taken away what he was entitled to (vv. 1–6); he prefigures his conclusion when he says that Job “walks with wicked men” (vv. 7–9; see v. 36).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:3 palate tastes food. Truth is discerned through hearing, just as the quality of food is discerned through tasting. Job used this same proverb earlier to challenge the wisdom of his friends (12:11). Elihu repeats the proverb to challenge his listeners to weigh Job’s words.
JOB—NOTE ON 34:4–6 With the repeated reference to right in these verses, Elihu seems to be playing particularly off Job’s statements in 27:2–6, where he lamented that God had taken his right away and he refused to agree that his friends were right about him.
JOB—NOTE ON 34:8 Elihu describes Job as one who walks with evildoers and wicked men, which is a path that the wise are called to avoid (see Ps. 1:1). He will ground this description in what he feels Job’s assertion about himself and God (Job 34:5) necessarily means (see vv. 11–13).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:9 Although Job had stated that the wicked and the righteous seem to suffer the same fate, in order to argue against his friends’ suggestion that the wicked are always punished, he did not state precisely what Elihu presents here. Job had governed his life by delight in God and his words (see 23:10–12), and he had argued that it was the wicked who live, often in prosperity, as if service to the Almighty profits a man nothing (see 21:15).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:10–37 Although Elihu has already indicated his conclusion about Job (vv. 7–9), he sets out to prove that Job should be condemned for his claims.
JOB—NOTE ON 34:10–12 These verses represent the grounds for Elihu’s argument against Job: since God will repay a man in accord with his work and ways (v. 11), Job’s claim that he is right and that God has taken away his right (see v. 5) would be the same as saying that God has acted in wickedness (v. 10) so as to pervert justice (v. 12). Although it takes a slightly different shape, Elihu’s argument results in the same dilemma that resulted from the arguments of the three friends: either Job is in the right or God is in the right, but it cannot be both (see 8:2–7).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:23 God has no need to consider a man further. The subject of this sentence is “he” in Hebrew (see esv footnote), and just whom that refers to must be inferred from the context. Some interpreters suggest that it refers to “man,” with the sense that a person does not set his own times for judgment, which would require a slight emendation of the Hebrew text. However, understanding God as the subject makes sense in the context of Elihu’s dispute: Job has been calling for some opportunity to present his case before either God or an arbitrator, but Elihu is suggesting that God has already acted and does not need to give further consideration to Job’s or any other person’s case.
JOB—NOTE ON 34:26–28 Although Elihu does not apply the images directly to Job, his description suggests something very similar to what the three friends had already argued (see 22:5–11): Job has been struck for all to see (34:26) because he must have turned aside from following the Lord’s ways (v. 27) by mistreating the poor and afflicted (v. 28).
JOB—NOTE ON 34:34–37 Elihu concludes with the presumption that any who are truly men of understanding or wise would agree with him (v. 34; see vv. 2, 10) that Job speaks like a fool who is without knowledge or insight (v. 35). Furthermore, Elihu wishes boldly that the judgment signified in Job’s suffering would be taken to its logical end (v. 36), because in addition to whatever sin he is ultimately being punished for, Job’s words also express rebellion and arrogance against God (v. 37).
JOB—NOTE ON 35:1–16 What Right Does Job Have Before God? Elihu argues against what he sees as Job’s presumption before God. Where Job said that the wicked and the righteous appear to suffer indiscriminately, Elihu argues that Job is acting as if his righteousness grants him some expectation of favor before God, when neither faithfulness nor wickedness accomplishes anything with or against God (vv. 1–8). Furthermore, where Job had maintained that the oppressed cry out and the wicked are not punished, Elihu argues that they often cry out in pride rather than in prayer to God, and thus God does not regard their cries, much less Job’s vain request and foolish words (vv. 9–16).
JOB—NOTE ON 35:2 my right before God. Job was declaring himself right before God. He asserted that God had wronged him (19:6), which in the view of Elihu amounted to claiming that he was right rather than God (32:2).
JOB—NOTE ON 35:6–8 Elihu repeats an aspect of Eliphaz’s final argument against Job—that God does not profit from Job’s righteousness (see 22:2–3). (However, where Elihu merely mentions wickedness within his comparison [35:8], Eliphaz detailed the likely specifics of Job’s evil [see 22:5–9].) Neither Eliphaz nor Elihu understand that the whole impetus for Job’s complaint is his desire to see God vindicated on earth in and through the lives of those who are faithful to him.
JOB—NOTE ON 35:12–13 When Elihu says that God does not heed the cry of the oppressed because of the pride of evil men (v. 12b), he does not explicitly indicate whether he is referring to those who cry out or to their oppressors. However, Elihu’s repeated emphasis that God does not answer (v. 12a), listen (hear), or regard an empty cry (v. 13) indicates that he is most likely referring to the pride of the oppressed.
JOB—NOTE ON 35:14–16 Elihu argues that if God does not regard the cries of the proud oppressed (vv. 9–13), how can Job expect an answer (v. 14) to what Elihu assumes is the even more obstinate stance of one who takes his own lack of punishment as reason to speak foolishly (vv. 15–16). This is extraordinarily insensitive, considering Job’s actual situation. Elihu is revealing a high view of his own importance.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:1–37:24 The Mercy and Majesty of God. Elihu concludes with a lengthy speech that he introduces as being “on God’s behalf” (36:2–4). He begins by inferring that Job’s situation is an example of God using affliction to deliver the righteous from their sin if they are willing to accept his correction (36:5–21). Elihu then describes God’s power and majesty as manifested audibly and visibly in storms, through which God accomplishes whatever purpose he has in mind (36:22–37:13). Finally, he calls Job to consider whether he knows how God does any of these things (37:14–20), to remind him of God’s majesty and power (37:21–23)—the reason both that men fear God and that he does not regard those who do not fear him (37:24).
JOB—NOTE ON 36:2–4 Elihu presents his final speech as something offered on God’s behalf (v. 2), emphasizing that, unlike Job (see 34:35), he has understanding that comes from outside himself (36:3) and that he is perfect in knowledge (v. 4), something he will later ascribe also to God (see 37:16). Again, he seems more arrogant than he realizes, as young men sometimes do.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:5–21 Elihu begins by describing God’s power and wisdom (v. 5) and asserts that he governs justly over the lives of both the wicked (v. 6) and the righteous (v. 7). The section is focused on affliction (v. 8; also vv. 6, 15, 21), which God uses to deliver the righteous from their sin unless they reject his correction and show themselves to be like the godless (vv. 8–15). Elihu appeals to Job to consider his own circumstances as an example of this choice, and encourages him to embrace the mercy of his affliction rather than his iniquity (vv. 16–21).
JOB—NOTE ON 36:6–7 The statement that God gives the afflicted their right (v. 6b) comes directly between the mention of the wicked (v. 6a) and the righteous (v. 7), expressing the heart of Elihu’s argument: the afflicted (see vv. 8, 15, 21) are treated justly by God and reveal the state of their heart by how they respond to affliction.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:8–15 Elihu describes affliction using the language of captivity: people are bound in chains and caught in the cords (v. 8) because God binds them (v. 13). He argues that God uses this captivity of affliction to speak to people about their sin (v. 9) and opens their ears to his correction (vv. 10, 15). Those who listen (v. 11) will be delivered by God (v. 15); those who do not listen (v. 12) will be judged even in the circumstances of their death (vv. 13–14).
JOB—NOTE ON 36:10 When he states that God opens the ears (also v. 15), Elihu is continuing his point from an earlier speech, suggesting ways that God has been speaking and that Job may be failing to listen (see 33:14, 16).
JOB—NOTE ON 36:13–14 Elihu describes those who hold onto their anger rather than crying out when God binds them through affliction (see v. 8). He does so now to warn that Job’s continued complaint could lead him to a state and end like that of the godless in heart.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:16–21 Elihu addresses Job more directly by describing the change in his circumstances (vv. 16–20) and warns him against choosing his iniquity rather than embracing the purpose of his affliction (v. 21; see vv. 8–15).
JOB—NOTE ON 36:16–17 Elihu refers to the change in Job’s circumstances with a wordplay on the descriptions of when his table was full of fatness (v. 16; i.e., prosperity) and how he is now full of the judgment on the wicked (v. 17; i.e., calamity and distress). Just as Elihu has already referred to affliction with the imagery of captivity (see vv. 8, 13), he suggests quite plainly that Job should see his own suffering as God seizing him in judgment and justice (v. 17).
JOB—NOTE ON 36:18 Elihu has already alluded to the possibility of a ransom (see 33:24). Here he makes it explicit: Job should consider the greatness of the loss of his family, his reputation, and all that belonged to his household as the means by which the Lord is arresting his attention and turning him from sin.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:22–37:13 Having described how God speaks through affliction (36:5–21), Elihu focuses now on the majestic and unsearchable ways of God (vv. 22–33) and the way in which his majesty is partially revealed in his governing of the power and purposes of storms (37:1–13). The speech is structured by the calls to the hearer/reader to see (Behold, 36:22, 26, 30) and hear (Keep listening, 37:2) what Elihu is describing—further implying that Job is simply not attending to the places where God is actually speaking.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:30 he scatters his lightning. The lightning of the storm represents God’s glory in it (cf. Ps. 104:2–3). His glory covers (lights up) even the depths of the sea.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:31 he judges peoples. Judging and nourishing are often parallel aspects of God’s provision. The clouds bear God’s throne, from which he governs and feeds his people.
JOB—NOTE ON 36:32 covers his hands. “Hands” may be a way of describing the great arches or vaulted chamber of heaven, filled with God’s light.
JOB—NOTE ON 37:2–5 Elihu makes repeated reference to God’s voice in connection with both the audible (thunder) and visible (lightning) manifestations of a storm, through which God communicates something of his majesty.
JOB—NOTE ON 37:7 He seals up the hand of every man. This probably refers to the way severe weather causes people to take shelter (as the animals do, v. 8) and thus prevents them from working.
JOB—NOTE ON 37:13 God’s providential purposes may relate to people (correction or love), or may be for his land (see also 38:25–27).
JOB—NOTE ON 37:14–20 Elihu focuses on God’s majesty and calls on Job to listen (Hear this, O Job) and apply the weight of this description to his complaint before God, just as he had called Job to do in relation to affliction (see 36:16–21).
JOB—NOTE ON 37:16 Elihu refers to God as one who is perfect in knowledge, a description he first applied to himself in offering this speech on God’s behalf (see 36:4).
JOB—NOTE ON 37:21–23 Elihu likens the light that comes after a storm has cleared (v. 21) to the God who is clothed with awesome majesty (v. 22), who cannot simply be found, who is extremely powerful, and who does not violate what is right (v. 23).
JOB—NOTE ON 37:24 Elihu presents the options of responding to God’s majesty in two stark categories: either people are wise and exhibit fear of God, or they are wise in their own heart (see esv footnote).
JOB—NOTE ON 38:1–42:6 Challenge: The Lord Answers Job. The Lord responds in two speeches, each followed by a brief response from Job. In the first, the Lord asks Job whether he knows how creation and its creatures are governed (38:1–40:2). Job, now made conscious of his ignorance, responds by pledging silence (40:3–5). In his second speech, the Lord asks Job particularly about power in relation to himself and other creatures he has made (40:6–41:34). Job, directly aware of God as never before, responds by humbly submitting to God’s sovereignty and penitently despising himself for his earlier wild words (42:1–6). While Job had rightly defended himself against his friends’ accusations of sin and had defined his circumstances as being governed by God, he had drawn conclusions about what his affliction meant that did not account sufficiently for what was hidden in the knowledge and purposes of God.
JOB—NOTE ON 38:1–40:2 The First Challenge: Understanding the Universe. After addressing Job and calling him to prepare himself (38:1–3), the Lord asks whether he knows how creation was established (38:4–11) and if he has the knowledge or ability to govern it (38:12–38) or to shape the lives of its wonderful variety of creatures (38:39–40:2).
JOB—NOTE ON 38:1 the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind. The heading of the speech is brief but important for what it signifies in the context of the book as a whole. The three friends and Elihu had all assumed in one way or another that Job’s circumstances and/or his response to them revealed a repudiation of the God whom he claimed to serve faithfully. They warned that if he did not repent and accept his affliction as corrective, he could only expect further judgment. However, the heading suggests that God reveals himself to Job in a display of both majestic power and relational presence: “the LORD” (Hb. YHWH), the name most often used to signify God’s covenant character and promises (see Ex. 3:14–15), was used in the prologue where God describes Job’s relationship to him (see Job 1:8; 2:3); the fact that the Lord “answered Job” contrasts with what the friends and Elihu indicated he should expect (see 35:9–13). Although Elihu had already described the display of God’s power and purposes in elements of weather (see 36:22–37:13), it is a covenantal gesture when the Lord reveals his power and his presence as he speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind.” While he does not come simply to justify Job, the Lord’s presence shows that his reproof comes in the context of steadfast love toward Job and not as judgment for what the friends assumed was Job’s repudiation of the path of righteousness.
JOB—NOTE ON 38:2 Elihu had accused Job of being someone whose words were generally “without knowledge” (34:35; 35:16) or insight (34:35) and represented rebellion in addition to his sin (34:37). The Lord does not reprove Job so extensively when he indicates that he darkens counsel by words without knowledge. There appears to be a play on the notion of darkness and something being hidden (see Job’s reference to the image in 42:3). Job had drawn conclusions about the nature of God’s rule from what was revealed on earth in his and others’ circumstances. However, he did not account fully for what is hidden from him, and thus his words cast a shadow on the wisdom and righteousness of God’s rule. In his speech, God will question Job in order to remind him that, even in what is revealed of God’s powerful and majestic governance of the natural world and its inhabitants, much is still hidden. And if this is true for creation and its creatures, how much more is it true in relation to the wisdom and purpose of the Creator?
JOB—NOTE ON 38:4–11 Job had begun by lamenting his birth and the time of his life (ch. 3). Using the same language of birth, God now asks Job about the birth of the universe. Can Job explain how the origin of the cosmos could or should have been different?
JOB—NOTE ON 38:7 sons of God. This is the same expression found in the prologue (see 1:6 and note). It refers to the members of the heavenly court surrounding God’s throne.
JOB—NOTE ON 38:12–38 The Lord questions Job about whether he has either the knowledge or the ability to govern elements of creation that he experiences regularly. In light of the obvious answer, the Lord also reminds Job that he cannot see fully what the Lord is doing with respect to justice and judgment (see vv. 13, 15, 17, 22–23).
JOB—NOTE ON 38:13–15 The repeated reference to the wicked (vv. 13, 15) indicates that the situations Job was lamenting on earth (e.g., 24:1–12) are not exhaustive of the Lord’s counsel in relation to them (see also 38:22–23).
JOB—NOTE ON 38:14 features stand out like a garment. The coming of the dawn (see v. 12) is compared to the dyeing of a garment.
JOB—NOTE ON 38:22–23 The reference to storehouses (v. 22) that are reserved for the time of trouble (v. 23) is another reminder to Job that the Lord’s governance of earth’s inhabitants is not limited to what is revealed on earth (see vv. 13–15).
JOB—NOTE ON 38:32 the Mazzaroth. This is a transliteration of a Hebrew word, otherwise unknown. In the context, it must refer to one of the constellations. the Bear. This is also a constellation, as indicated by the reference to it along with Orion and Pleiades in 9:9 (see 38:31).
JOB—NOTE ON 38:36 The translation of this line is difficult because the Hebrew terms are rare. If they are translated as “ibis” and “rooster” (see esv footnote), the line has a sense that fits well in the context of the section to come (38:39–40:2). The combination of wisdom and understanding may make it more likely that these terms refer to inward parts or mind, as that which governs a person’s actions and appropriates wisdom from the Lord.
JOB—NOTE ON 38:39–39:30 The Lord now turns from describing his governance of creation to governance of specific creatures. The speech finishes with a request for Job to answer (40:1–2).
JOB—NOTE ON 39:9 Hunting the wild ox was a sport of royalty. Shalmaneser III of Assyria had it portrayed among the items of tribute on his famous monument, the Black Obelisk.
JOB—NOTE ON 39:15 foot may crush them. The ostrich lays her eggs in a shallow nest on the ground and sometimes scatters some of them, or deliberately destroys them if the nest is discovered.
JOB—NOTE ON 39:18 rouses herself to flee. The ostrich makes sport of the fearless warhorse. As it flees, the ostrich reaches a height of over 8 feet (2.4 m), strides of over 15 feet in length (4.6 m), and speeds of more than 40 miles (64 km) an hour.
JOB—NOTE ON 40:1–2 The Lord refers to Job as a faultfinder and asks him to answer; but the questions help Job to recognize what is beyond the reach of any mortal’s knowledge or power.
JOB—NOTE ON 40:3–5 Job’s Response: Silence. In the face of the Lord’s questions, Job puts his hand over his mouth (v. 4), just as princes had done in his own presence (see 29:9), and pledges silence (40:5).
JOB—NOTE ON 40:6–41:34 The Second Challenge: Understanding Justice and Power. At the hands of his three friends, Job knew what it felt like to have what was hidden about him (e.g., the state of his heart before God) questioned and judged by those who had drawn wrong conclusions from what was visible in his circumstances. The Lord now questions Job for overextending his judgment of what his suffering meant about the Lord’s just governance of the world (40:6–9). In his faithfulness, Job had embodied aspects of the Lord’s just and right character (see 29:11–17). However, the Lord makes the point that, in speaking about justice on earth, Job is referring to something much more extensive than he could comprehend or accomplish (40:10–14). The Lord illustrates this point further by describing two beasts of creation: Behemoth (40:15–24) and Leviathan (ch. 41). If Job is unable to subdue these powerful beasts who are themselves a part of creation, how much less should he presume to be able to maintain his own right toward the Lord (see 41:9–11).
JOB—NOTE ON 40:6–14 The Lord addresses Job (v. 7) and questions him particularly about how Job sought to defend his integrity in such a way that he seemed to imply that it was God who was acting out of accord with his own character (v. 8). In doing so, Job has spoken beyond his knowledge or power to act justly (vv. 9–14).
JOB—NOTE ON 40:13 Hide them … in the dust is a euphemism for “bury.” Faces is metonymy for the whole person. bind. Death is an imprisonment; the image is that of faces pushed into the grave.
JOB—NOTE ON 40:15–24 The Lord describes the power of Behemoth.
JOB—NOTE ON 40:15 Behemoth usually refers to cattle, but in at least one other reference it most likely signifies a hippopotamus (see esv footnote). It is almost universally so interpreted in this passage, taking the description of vv. 16–18 as poetical extravagance. Some, however, suppose that the description requires some kind of mythical beast to be in view, as a parallel to Leviathan (41:1); the first option is simpler.
JOB—NOTE ON 40:17 tail stiff like a cedar. “Tail” is a common euphemism for phallus. It is to be so interpreted in this verse, considering the description of the anatomy of the animal. Potency is often associated with procreative power. In the medieval period, Behemoth was conceived as a symbol of sensuality and sin. sinews of his thighs. The word for “sinews” is otherwise unknown. Some ancient versions (see Targum, Latin) took it to mean “testicle,” in keeping with the interpretation of the first line.
JOB—NOTE ON 41:1–34 The Lord describes the power of Leviathan by focusing on the inability of man to subdue him, then applies such power analogously to himself (vv. 9–11).
JOB—NOTE ON 41:1 Leviathan. The animal described in this section may be the crocodile (see esv footnote). Interpreters sometimes suggest it is a mythical creature representing forces overcome by God’s power in creation (see 3:8 and note). However, the focus of this section is on the fact that, whatever powerful creature is being referred to, it is a part of God’s creation and is governed by his power (see note on Ps. 74:14).
JOB—NOTE ON 41:9–11 If it is futile for people to presume that they could lay their hands on Leviathan, who is a part of God’s creation (vv. 9, 11), then how much more should Job be cautious about his presumption in wanting to bring his case and stand before God.
JOB—NOTE ON 41:24 His heart. “Heart” is metonymy for “chest” (see Ex. 28:29).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:1–6 Job’s Response: Submission. In response to the Lord’s reproof, Job confesses that the Lord’s power and purposes will not fail (v. 2) and that he spoke of things beyond his knowledge (v. 3). In the presence of the Lord who is speaking and appearing to him, Job repents of what in the dialogue he was wildly blurting out (vv. 4–6).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:3–4 In the first part of each of these verses, Job is quoting the Lord’s questions (see 38:2–3; also 40:7) before responding to them.
JOB—NOTE ON 42:6 The Lord has already embodied his mercy to Job in the way he graciously reproved and questioned Job for his good. I despise myself. That is, “I recognize the ignorance behind my own words.” God’s mercy is pictured further in the humble posture of Job, who in dust and ashes finally enjoys the comfort of relational peace that had been withheld from him by his friends: repent translates a form from the same root used of the friends’ intention to “comfort” Job in 2:11 (see esv footnote). The translation of the esv footnote (“I despise myself and am comforted in dust and ashes”) finds support in the way it corresponds to Job’s search for comfort that runs through the book (see Introduction: Literary Features), and is consistent with God’s declaration that what Job has spoken of him is right (42:7).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:7–17 Epilogue: The Vindication, Intercession, and Restoration of Job. The final section of the book brings to light on earth what the prologue had described to be true before God: Job’s suffering was not a consequence of sin (see 1:1–2:13). The narrative of this section describes two aspects of the conclusion to the dialogue: the Lord charges Eliphaz and the other friends with speaking wrong words about him and calls upon them to offer sacrifices to him and seek intercession from Job (42:7–9), and the Lord restores Job’s fortunes (vv. 10–17).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:7–9 The Lord Rebukes the Three Friends. In God’s presence Job finds the arbiter for whom he had longed, as the Lord assigns a sacrifice to the three friends and requires them to seek Job’s intercession. Notably, Elihu is absent from this final scene. Neither do Job’s wife and Satan—so prominent in the prologue—feature in the close of the book.
JOB—NOTE ON 42:7 My anger burns against you. The Lord’s anger is directed against Eliphaz the Temanite and the other two friends (Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; see 2:11). This contrasts with Elihu who had presumed to speak, though harshly, on God’s behalf (36:2), and whose anger had burned against Job as well as his friends (see 32:2–3). spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Job’s words certainly expressed deep anguish and frustration; but God does not count these words sinful. This is probably because Job never lost his earnest desire to appear before God, and his words are testimony to that.
JOB—NOTE ON 42:8 for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. What is revealed to the friends is tragically ironic for them: they had been so sure they were defending wisdom against Job’s “folly,” only to find out they were totally mistaken. This conclusion is also a picture of God’s mercy and Job’s faithfulness: Job has the chance to intercede on behalf of the people who had brought him further suffering rather than the comfort he needed and should have received from them. By interceding for his friends, Job images the character of the Lord (e.g., slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and mercy) and embodies the very mercy he himself had received. By doing so, he also continues the intercessory role he had faithfully performed for his family (see 1:5).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:10–17 The Lord Restores Job. It is of utmost significance to note that Job’s restoration occurs only at this point, when he has capitulated to God and has been reconciled with his friends—still in his broken and bereaved state. Precisely at this point, community is reestablished (vv. 10–11) and Job himself restored (vv. 12–15). As the restoration proceeds, his previous possessions of livestock are doubled (v. 12; cf. 1:3, and see note on 42:16), and a further 10 children born to him (v. 13; cf. 1:2).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:11 After he was restored, Job’s siblings and other friends came to him and showed him sympathy and comforted him, which restored a loss that Job had earlier lamented (cf. 19:13–19). This was the original intention of the three friends (see 2:11), but Job ends up receiving comfort primarily through his matured relationship with the Lord (see 42:6) and also through being vindicated by the Lord before those from whom he previously, and rightly, received respect (see Introduction: Literary Features).
JOB—NOTE ON 42:14 Jemimah … Keziah … Keren-happuch. The name of the first daughter means “dove”; the second, a kind of perfume; and the third, a type of eye shadow. Their beauty indicates a special status.
JOB—NOTE ON 42:16 Job lived 140 years—double the normal span of life (cf. Ps. 90:10). This is in keeping with the restoration of all Job’s fortunes (Job 42:10).