42:1 Then Job answered the Lord: 42:2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted;
Job confessed that God’s divine sovereignty cannot be stopped. All of God’s plans will be fulfilled.
42:3 you asked, ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But I have declared without understanding things too wonderful for me to know.
Job confessed that he had spoken without knowledge. There were many wonderful things about God that Job did not yet understand.
42:4 You said, ‘Pay attention, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’
Job was listening at his best. He did pay attention to what God said and what God asked. Job flunked God’s biological examinations, but he learned a lesson of God’s sovereign purpose for man.
42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen you.
Job had heard of God, but he had not visibly seen Him. Charismatics will often use this verse to falsely teach others that God appeared to them. God speaks today through His written Word.
42:6 Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes!
Job despised himself for questioning the integrity of God. He repented in dust and ashes. This was a public symbolic gesture of humbling oneself in front of a holy God.
42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.
God has something to say to Job’s three friends. He spoke to Eliphaz, probably because he was the elder of the three. God was angry at them, because they did not comfort Job during his suffering. Instead, they accused him of committing a terrible sin without evidence. They offered him philosophy from the satanic world system. They assumed a position of defending God, but they ended up defending themselves. They thought that they knew God’s ways, but they did not. God called Job His servant four different times.
42:8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede for you, and I will respect him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
These men never prayed for Job. They just simply accused him without evidence. Now, they were required to offer a large sacrifice to God. This sacrifice pointed to the coming Redeemer of Genesis 3:15.
42:9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job.
Job had asked for a mediator, but he actually became the mediator for his three friends. They did not pray for Job, but Job did pray for them.
42:10 So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job.
God doubled all of Job’s material possessions.
42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
Job’s family members and friends all dined with Job and comforted him.
42:12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
God doubled the livestock of Job. Since Job had unknowingly silenced Satan by not cursing God, then his suffering did not need to continue. Many prosperity preachers will use this verse to teach that God materially prospers those who honor God. However, this is a different dispensation. In the dispensation of the church, believers are called to suffer.
42:13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
Job had lost ten children, but he gained ten more. This means that he will have 20 children in eternity.
42:14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch.
Jemimah means “dove.” Keziah means “cinnamon perfume.” Keren-Happuch means “horn of eyepaint.” The latter was makeup to make eyelashes and eyelids more attractive.
42:15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.
Job was the father of the most beautiful daughters in Uz. It was unusual for daughters to receive their father’s inheritance in ancient cultures, as the property was passed to the sons.
42:16 After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
Job was about seventy years old when the calamities struck. He lived an additional seventy years. After the flood, people lived for longer periods of time.
42:17 And so Job died, old and full of days.
Job lived to see four more generations of his grandchildren. Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It teaches that suffering does not come from some kind of terrible sin that a person commits. Instead, suffering comes from some divine reason of God that man may not fully understand. When man suffers, he needs to not question God, but to trust in Him. There is a joy in suffering in which the satanic system does not understand.