Job 42:1-17
1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for hima will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.b
10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gavec Job twice as much as he had before.
11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.
17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
Job's answer is full of the stateliness of a great submission. As he speaks the words of surrender he appears mightier in his submission than all the things into the presence of which he has been brought. In his confession of the sufficiency of God, of the folly of his own past speech, of his present repentance in the light of God's glory, there is revealed a glory of God not manifest in any other part of the universe described. This surrender is God's victory of vindication. There has been no explanation of pain, but pain is forgotten, and all the circumstances of trial against which the spirit of the man has rebelled are out of sight. He has found himself in relationship to God. What Eliphaz asked him to do, but could not teach him how, he now has done. Acquainted with God, his treasure is laid in the dust, and he has found Jehovah to be his all-sufficient wealth.
The victory being won in the soul of Job, Jehovah deals with his friends. His wrath is kindled against them, and yet it is mingled with mercy. Their intention was right, but their words were wrong. In their attempt to explain God, they had not said of Him "the thing that was right." Notwithstanding all his murmuring, nay, in the very affirmation of his inability to comprehend, Job had spoken profounder truth concerning God than they. God's vindication of him to them is marked by the fact that He speaks of him as "My servant," the same term He used at the beginning. It is also marked in His appointment of His servant as intercessor on their behalf. They had attempted to restore Job to God by philosophy. He is now to be the means of restoring them by prayer. As at the beginning there were things to be said in their favor, so at the close. Their sincerity is shown in the fact that they submit, bring their offerings, and make confession.
Up to this point it would seem as if there had been no change in Job's circumstances. The bands of his captivity were broken in the activity of prayer on behalf of others. All the rest is told in brief sentences. Job had been in the fire, and now he emerged from it, and his latter days on earth were characterized by even greater prosperity than his earlier ones.
In ending our consideration of this great Book, let us not attempt to formulate a philosophy which includes a solution of the problem of pain. This much at least we know, that through it this man gained, and there we leave it.