Job 42 — Seeing Beyond the Whirlwind
A Hebrew wrinkle in 42:6: “I despise” (’em’as) and “repent” (wenichamti) need not mean self-loathing. ’Em’as often means “I retract,” and nicham can mean “I am comforted/relent.” And the preposition “al dust and ashes” can mean “concerning.” Many scholars read, “I recant and am comforted concerning dust and ashes.” In other words, Job steps back from litigating God and embraces creatureliness (cf. Gen 18:27). Not groveling, but consenting to be mortal before Majesty.
God vindicates truthful lament Shock: God declares the friends wrong and Job right (42:7). Not because Job was always correct, but because he refused to protect God with lies. He spoke to God, not merely about Him. The verb “you have not spoken of me what is right” (nekhonah, from kun, “firm/true”) suggests more than doctrinal accuracy; it is stability before God. In Scripture, truth is covenantal fidelity, not just correct slogans. Western readers often think orthodoxy by itself is safe. Job shows that accuracy weaponized against the suffering becomes falsehood.
The ash-heap priest God orders the friends to bring sacrifices and have Job pray for them. The phrase “I will accept him” is literally “I will lift up his face” (’essa panav)—a reversal of Job’s fallen countenance. Job becomes priest for his accusers, a living prelude to Jesus’ “Father, forgive them.” Here our previous notes converge: the elusive “ransom,” the hoped-for “witness,” the sought-for “mediator” (Job 9; 16; 33) crystallize in intercession. The Lord “restored the fortunes of Job” when he prayed for his friends—an exodus/exile formula (shuv shevut; cf. Deut 30:3; Jer 29:14; Ps 126:1). Job is a micro‑Israel: out of exile by grace, into priesthood for the nations.
Beauty after ashes, and an unusual inheritance Relatives return with a qesitah (an archaic weight—possibly lamb‑shaped money known from archaeology) and a gold ring (nezem, often a nose ring). Tokens of social re‑weaving: community repairs what neglect had frayed (42:11). Job’s latter blessing doubles his herds, but not his children—an ancient hint that the first ten are not erased; the arithmetic of resurrection is at work.
Then, the daughters: Jemimah, Keziah, Keren‑Happuch—dove/daylight, spice, “horn of kohl.” Kohl lined the eyes in the ancient Near East; after saying “now my eye sees you,” Job names beauty without idolatry. And he gives his daughters inheritance among their brothers, an unheard-of generosity (cf. Num 27). Restoration is not only private comfort; it reshapes economics and gendered assumptions. The end of Job is not “back to normal,” but a different order where mercy funds equity.
Cross-references - Genesis 18:27; Psalm 126; Deuteronomy 30:3;
Jeremiah 29:14
- Isaiah 40:1; 53:11 (“my servant”)
- Matthew 5:44; 1 Timothy 2:5; 2 Corinthians 4:6; James 5:11,16; Numbers
27
Historical note Gregory the Great (Moralia in Job) saw Job as both Christ and the Church: humiliated, interceding, then exalted. Calvin stressed that God’s self‑disclosure silences us without enslaving us; He “uses might to maintain right.”
Hymn suggestion God Moves in a Mysterious Way (William Cowper)
Prayer Lord of the whirlwind, lift our faces. Teach us to recant our certainties and be comforted concerning dust and ashes. Make us priests for those who wounded us. Restore the fortunes of the broken as we pray, and let our restorations overflow into justice and joy. Give us eyes to see Your glory and hands to share Your inheritance. Through Jesus our Mediator. Amen.