Job 42

¹ Then Job answered the LORD:

² “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.

³ You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.

⁴ You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’

⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

⁶ Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷ It was so, 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 the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.

⁸ Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls 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 I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”

⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD commanded them, and the LORD accepted Job.

¹⁰ The LORD restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends. The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

¹¹ Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, came to him and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

¹² So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.

¹³ He had also seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴ He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch.

¹⁵ In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

¹⁶ After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations.

¹⁷ So Job died, being old and full of days.

Around Job 42

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Job as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

The storm comes at last. After chapters of grief, argument and silence from heaven, the LORD answers Job “out of the whirlwind”. He does not explain. He asks: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

How Job got there is the rest of the book. He is a good man who loses his children, his wealth and his health. Three friends come to comfort him and end up arguing that he must have sinned to suffer so much. Job insists he has not, and demands an answer from God.

A younger man, Elihu, adds his view. Then God speaks, not with an explanation but with questions about the making and running of the world. Job is humbled. God says that Job spoke rightly and the friends did not, and Job is restored.

Background

The story is set in the land of Uz, outside Israel, in a time that resembles the age of Abraham. Its author and date are unknown. The opening and closing are prose; everything between is poetry, some of the most demanding in the Bible.

How Christians read it

The book rejects the idea that suffering is always punishment for sin, without offering a full account of why people suffer. Readers differ on what God's answer means: a rebuke, a comfort, or an invitation to trust a wisdom larger than our own. The accuser in the opening chapters is understood by most Christian tradition as Satan; the Hebrew uses the word as a title. James 5:11 holds up Job as an example of endurance.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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