After YHWH speaks to Job (Job 38:1–40:2), Job gives a tentative response (Job 40:3–5), so YHWH continues with a second speech (40:6–41:34), including detailed descriptions of Behemoth and Leviathan, which evokes a more definite response from Job as noted in this passage (Job 42:1–6).[11] This time Job admits that he has gotten a 'more accurate understanding' about YHWH and about himself as a 'finite mortal under YHWH's authority'.[12]
[Job says:] a‘Who is he who hides counsel without knowledge?’
bTherefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
cthings too wonderful for me which I did not know.[14]
Clause (a) is Job's restatement of God’s question (Job 38:2) before he answers it in clauses (b) and (c).[15] YHWH's questions in the speeches have changed Job's understanding that he realizes how much he does not know.[11]
"Wonderful": translated from the Hebrew word פָלָא, palaorpele,[16] which refers to 'information in the divine realm that is beyond human understanding' or "supernatural".[17] In the Hebrew Bible this word is used to describe knowledge of God's name (Judges 13:18) and God's wondrous acts (Exodus 3:20; Joshua 3:5; Judges 6:13; Psalm 139:6).[17] In the Book of Job, this word occurs 6 times, in Job 5:9; 9:10; 10:16; 37:5, 14; 42:3, each instance of which helps to understand its meaning.[17]
Here Job distinguishes between the 'secondhand experience' ("my ears had heard"; "hearsay") and 'firsthand experience' ("now my eyes have seen"), which gives him a better understanding (verse 6).[17]
"Abhor": or "despise" (such as in NRSV, NIV, ESV) translated from the Hebrew word מָאַס, mā'as,[16] which has a core meaning of "reject" or "retract"; in this case, Job "rejects" or "retracts" his litigation against God (cf. usage in Job 31:13 against a legal case or suit).[20]
"Repent": translated from the Hebrew word נָחַם, nakham, "to be sorry, console oneself".[16][21] It can refer to 'human repentance for wrongdoing' (Jeremiah 8:6; 31:19), or 'change of attitude out of compassion' (Judges 21:6, 15), or 'moving from a right course of action to a wrong one' (Exodus 13:17). God is said to be 'repenting' of the good he intended to do (Jeremiah 18:10).[22] Here the word implied "regret", that Job regrets his earlier statements: 'his characterization of God, his presumptuous belief in his own understanding and his arrogant challenges'.[23] The verb should be distinguished from other Hebrew words that can also be translated as "repent", such as shub ("return", to change a behavior), which was used by Eliphaz to urge Job to "repent" from his presumptively 'great sin' (Job 22:23), because in 42:6 Job does not suggest a behavior change, but suggest a wish to retract his previous statements.[23]
The prose epilogue consists of two conclusions: the first part contains YHWH's commendation of Job for speaking correctly and YHWH's rebuke of Job's three friends (verses 7–9) and second part describes the restoration of Job, a complete life with additional seven sons and three beautiful daughters along with plenty of possession, even enjoying two additional lifespans and seeing four generations of descendants until he dies 'old and full of days' (verses 10–17).[24]
And so it was, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has."[25]
Job's friends tried to protect YHWH's reputation by insisting that Job must have sinned, which is extrapolating the divine retribution principle, that reduced YHWH to a 'predictable deity' confined to a fixed formula.[26] On the other hand, despite Job's complaints about God's justice and fairness, God knows completely what in Job's heart and has evaluated Job on the basis of that perfect understanding.[26]
Lutheran writer Johann Bengel notes that the Septugint and Theodotion add Greek: γέγραπται δὲ αὐτὸν πάλιν ἀναστήσεσθαι μεθʼ ὧν ὁ κύριος ἀνίστησιν, meaning
but it is written that he shall rise again with those whom the Lord raises.
Estes, Daniel J. (2013). Walton, John H.; Strauss, Mark L. (eds.). Job. Teach the Text Commentary Series. United States: Baker Publishing Group. ISBN9781441242778.
Book of Job public domain audiobook at LibriVox Various versions
