The big picture
Job's final response names the limit exposed by the whirlwind speeches: he had spoken about matters too wonderful for his understanding. The change is not a discovery that the friends were right about secret crimes. It is a recognition that his defence had reached beyond the knowledge from which he could judge the whole government of God. Hearing has become encounter, and the KJV records Job's response in the language of abhorrence and repentance in dust and ashes. Then the Lord turns to Eliphaz and overturns the social and theological posture of the debate. The three friends are rebuked for not speaking rightly of God as Job has, and the man they condemned becomes the servant whose prayer is accepted for them. Restoration follows with renewed fellowship, doubled livestock, seven sons, three named daughters who receive inheritance among their brothers, and a long life reaching four generations. The ending restores generously without erasing the earlier dead or converting suffering into a formula.
Central truth
Job 42:1–6 records Job withdrawing the posture of one who could press his case from adequate knowledge: after hearing the Lord, he confesses that he spoke beyond his understanding and responds in dust and ashes. Job 42:7–17 closes the book by having the Lord rebuke Job’s three friends, require them to seek Job’s intercession, restore Job’s fortunes and community, and give him a long future without suggesting that later gifts erase the children and grief already lost.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Job 42:1: “Then Job answered the LORD, and said,”
Slow down at the turning point
Job 42:8: “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…”
Keep this word trail visible
LORD, servant, sons, gave, name, seven
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Job 42:1–6
Job 42:1-2
Begin with God
Read 42:1-2 and point out the order: Job's first words are about God. "thou canst do every thing". Explain thought here as purpose or plan: nothing God intends can be stopped. Teach this first because the whole response flows from it. Job has heard the speeches of chapters 38-41, and his confession is a summary of them. He is not beaten into silence; he has seen something true about God and says so.
Job 42:3
Taking the Lord's words as his own
Read 42:3 beside 38:2 and let the class find the echo. Job quotes the Lord's question about himself and answers it: yes, he spoke without understanding, of "things too wonderful for me". Explain wonderful as beyond comprehension, the same word used of God's deeds in the Psalms. Teach this step to show precisely what Job confesses. It is about his words concerning God's ways. It is not the confession of hidden sin the friends demanded, and the class should leave able to tell the difference.
Job 42:4-5
From hearing to seeing
Read 42:4 and note that Job now repeats the Lord's summons of 38:3 and 40:7, not as a challenge but as a learner's request. Then read 42:5. Ask what the difference is between hearing of someone and seeing them. Explain that Job had known about God by tradition and teaching; now he has encountered him. Link this to 19:26-27, where Job hoped to see God for himself. Teach this as the heart of the passage: the answer to Job's suffering is not an argument but the presence of God.
Job 42:6
Dust and ashes
Read 42:6 and be honest with the class that the Hebrew is difficult. The King James has "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes"; other readings take the first verb as rejecting or retracting his words, and the second as turning or being comforted. Point out "dust and ashes" from 30:19, and the ashes Job sat in from 2:8. Teach this step carefully, without settling the translation. Whatever Job means, he takes a humble place before God, and the Lord's next words in 42:7 vindicate him.
Job 42:1-7
Read verse 6 with verse 7
End by reading 42:6 and 42:7 together. The Lord's very next words are a rebuke to Eliphaz and the two friends, "for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath". Explain that this controls how verse 6 can be read: Job's repentance cannot mean he was guilty of what they charged. Teach this last so the class holds both truths at once. Job needed correction in how he spoke of God's ways, and Job was right and the friends were wrong about his suffering.
Job 42:7–17
Job 42:7
The verdict on the friends
Start with the change of voice: the prose of the prologue returns, and the Lord speaks to Eliphaz. Read 42:7 and stress the reason, "ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right". Explain that the friends' error was theological: they claimed to know that God punishes in proportion to sin, and so misrepresented him. Teach this first because it is the book's final judgement on the debate, and it settles how every speech from chapter 4 to 27 should be read. The friends said true things; they spoke wrongly of God.
Job 42:8-9
Job prays for his accusers
Read 42:8. The friends must bring a large sacrifice to Job, and Job will pray for them. Point out that the Lord calls Job "my servant" four times in 42:7-8. Explain that this echoes 1:5, where Job offered burnt offerings for his children, and shows Job back in the role of intercessor. Then read 42:9: the friends obey, "the LORD also accepted Job". Teach this to show the relational repair. Job must forgive and pray for men who wounded him, and they must humble themselves before the man they condemned.
Job 42:10
Restored while praying
Read 42:10 slowly. The turning of Job's fortunes is tied to the moment "when he prayed for his friends". Explain turned the captivity as a Hebrew phrase for restoring someone's fortunes. Then "twice as much as he had before". Teach this step carefully. The book records a restoration, but it does not teach that faithfulness always brings doubled wealth; that would be the friends' theology again. The restoration is a gift of God's grace, and it begins in an act of forgiveness.
Job 42:11
The community comes home
Read 42:11 and compare it with 19:13-19, where Job listed everyone who had turned from him. Now they come, eat bread with him, mourn with him and comfort him. Point out that the verse says "all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him": the Book of Job still does not explain or soften what happened. Teach this step to show that restoration includes people as well as possessions. Shared food and comfort are what Job lacked most; the gifts of money and gold are small beside them.
Job 42:12-15
Doubled flocks, new children
Read 42:12 beside 1:3: the numbers are exactly doubled. Then 42:13: seven sons and three daughters, the same as before, not doubled. Explain carefully that the later children are gifts in Job's new life, not replacements for those who died. Then read the daughters' names: Jemima, perhaps dove; Kezia, cassia, a fragrant spice; Keren-happuch, a horn of eye paint. Teach this to show the tenderness of the ending, especially the daughters' inheritance, and to protect bereaved learners from hearing that loss can be cancelled.
Job 42:16-17
Old and full of days
End with 42:16-17. Job lives a hundred and forty years and sees four generations, and dies "being old and full of days", the same phrase used of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 25:8 and 35:29. Teach this last so the class leaves with the shape of the whole book: a blameless man, a hidden test, a long lament, a debate that went wrong, the Lord's answer, and a long life ending in peace. The book never tells Job about chapter 1, and he dies satisfied without knowing it.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
Job 42:1–6
"Job finally admitted he was a sinner, so the friends were right all along."
Read 42:3 carefully: Job admits he spoke of "things too wonderful for me, which I knew not". He does not confess the crimes Eliphaz listed in 22:5-9. And in 42:7, immediately after Job's words, the Lord says the friends "have not spoken of me the thing that is right". The friends were wrong that Job's suffering proved guilt. Job was wrong to think he understood enough to judge God's ways. Both are true, and the book keeps them apart.
"Abhor myself means we should hate ourselves before God."
The Hebrew of 42:6 is debated, and many readers think Job rejects or retracts his words rather than despising himself. Even read as the King James has it, it is Job's response to seeing God, not a general rule. Scripture calls people to humility and repentance, not to self-hatred. Be careful with learners who already carry shame; do not use this verse to deepen it.
"Job only gave up because God overpowered him."
Job's first words are a confession of who God is (42:2), and verse 5 says "now mine eye seeth thee". That is not the language of a man crushed into silence but of one who has met God. In 40:4-5 Job had simply stopped speaking; here he speaks again, freely and from understanding. The change is from report to encounter, and that is what quiets him.
"Since Job never found out why, the book teaches that we should not want to know."
Job asked why throughout the book, and the Lord never rebuked him for asking; he rebuked him for words without knowledge. The book shows that Job could meet God and be at peace without being told the reason. That is not a command to stop asking but a promise that the answer to suffering is not only information. Let learners keep their questions.
Job 42:7–17
"The happy ending proves that if you stay faithful, God will give everything back."
Job's restoration is God's gift, not a rule for all who suffer. If doubled wealth were the guaranteed reward of faithfulness, the book would end by endorsing the friends' theology, which 42:7 condemns. Many faithful people in Scripture die without seeing restoration in this life (Hebrews 11:13, 11:36-39). Teach the ending as grace, and be careful with learners whose losses have not been restored.
"Job got his children back."
Job's livestock doubled in 42:12, but 42:13 gives him seven sons and three daughters, the same number as before. The first ten died in 1:19 and are not said to return. The new children are new people. Saying that they replaced the first children wounds anyone who has lost a child. Speak of them as later gifts, and let the first children remain mourned.
"The friends were punished because they were mean to Job."
The Lord's charge in 42:7 is that they "have not spoken of me the thing that is right". Their error was about God, not only about manners. And they are not punished; they are told to offer sacrifice and receive Job's prayer, and "the LORD also accepted Job" on their behalf (42:9). The ending is about repair, not revenge.
"Verse 11 says the LORD brought evil on Job, so God is the cause of all suffering."
The verse describes what Job's community comforted him over, and the Book of Job does not soften it. It has also shown the adversary acting in 1:12 and 2:7, within the Lord's permission. The book holds both without explaining how they fit, and traditions explain it differently. Do not use 42:11 to tell a sufferer that God sent their pain, and do not deny that the book places all things under God's rule.
Learning objectives
- Identify the claims Job makes about the Lord’s power in verse 2.
- Explain how verse 3 deliberately echoes the Lord’s earlier challenge about counsel without knowledge.
- State what Job admits he did not understand and how he describes those matters.
- Trace the change from hearing 'by the hearing of the ear' to 'now mine eye seeth thee' in verse 5.
- Handle 'I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes' without validating the friends’ accusations.
- Connect Job’s response in verses 1–6 with the Lord’s later statement in verse 7 that Job, unlike the three friends, has spoken what is right concerning Him.
- State the Lord’s charge against Eliphaz and his two friends.
- Explain the required sacrifices and Job’s role in praying for the friends.
- Identify the timing in verse 10 between Job’s prayer for his friends.
- Describe the return of Job’s brothers, sisters.
- Inventory the restoration in verses 12–17.
- Explain the significance of naming Job’s three daughters.
Teacher preparation
- Read Job 38:1–42:9 before class.
- Mark the phrases in 42:3 that echo 38:2. Job now takes the Lord’s challenge into his own mouth and applies it to himself.
- Prepare to explain the KJV's 'repent' carefully.
- Keep 42:7 visible.
- Do not rush verse 5 into mystical speculation.
- Read Job 42:7–17 beside Job 1:1–5. Prepare a beginning-and-ending comparison for livestock, children, family gathering, and Job’s age.
- Keep the phrase in verse 7 exact: the Lord says the friends have not spoken of Him 'the thing that is right' as Job has.
- Prepare to explain the seven bullocks and seven rams as the specific offering required in verses 8–9. Job’s prayer becomes part of the friends’ restoration.
- Handle the new children with pastoral and textual restraint.
- Mark the daughters in 14–15: Jemima, Kezia, Keren-happuch, their beauty, and their inheritance.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Job 42:2 says the Lord can do everything and that no thought can be withheld from Him. Verses 7–9 record the Lord’s anger with Eliphaz and his two friends, their required offerings.
Scripture-supported
Job 42:7 immediately prevents the class from concluding that Job’s repentance validates the friends’ accusations. The Lord’s final evaluation confirms that the friends’ retribution speeches were not a sound reading of Job’s case.
Strong inference
Job’s change is primarily epistemic and relational before it is explanatory. The restoration of social community matters alongside the doubled livestock.
Possible or traditional reading
Interpreters debate the exact force of the Hebrew behind the KJV wording in verse 6. Readers have offered symbolic meanings for the daughters’ names and have debated why their inheritance is highlighted.
Limit
The passage does not say Job confesses the specific sins invented by Eliphaz. The passage does not say the new children replace the ten who died.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What does Job confess about God in verse 2 before saying anything about himself?
What a good answer contains
"I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee" (42:2). Job begins with God, not himself: God's power is unlimited and his purposes cannot be stopped. A good answer sees that this is the lesson of chapters 38-41 in one sentence. Job has moved from arguing about God's justice to confessing God's sovereignty. A weak answer treats 42:2 as a general statement and misses that it is Job's response to the speeches he has just heard.
Show teacher guidance
He acknowledges God’s ability to do everything and that no thought or purpose can be withheld.
2. Whose words is Job echoing in verse 3, and why does the echo matter?
What a good answer contains
Job quotes the Lord: "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?" (42:3) echoes 38:2, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?". In 42:4, "I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me", he echoes 38:3 and 40:7. A strong answer sees that Job takes the Lord's own words into his mouth and accepts them as true of himself. The echo shows he has listened. A weak answer misses the quotation and reads 42:3 as a new thought.
Show teacher guidance
He echoes the Lord’s challenge from 38:2 about counsel without knowledge.
3. What exactly does Job say he lacked understanding about?
What a good answer contains
Job says "therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not" (42:3). He admits he spoke about things beyond his knowledge: the ways of God in governing the world. A good answer keeps this precise. Job does not confess to the sins the friends alleged, and he does not say his suffering was deserved. He confesses that his words went beyond what he knew. A weak answer turns 42:3 into an admission that the friends were right.
Show teacher guidance
He says he uttered what he did not understand, 'things too wonderful' that he did not know.
4. What contrast does verse 5 create between ear and eye?
What a good answer contains
"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (42:5). Before, Job knew God by report, the way the realm of death knew wisdom only by its fame in 28:22. Now he has met God. A strong answer sees that this is what changes Job: not information but encounter. It also links back to 19:26-27, where Job hoped to see God. A weak answer reads "seeth" as a literal vision and misses that the point is personal knowledge.
Show teacher guidance
Job had heard of God, but now says his eye sees Him.
5. How should verse 6 be read in light of verse 7?
What a good answer contains
Verse 6 says "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Readers translate the Hebrew differently; some render it as Job retracting his words or being comforted in dust and ashes, rather than despising himself. Whatever it entails, 42:7 follows at once: the Lord says Job spoke "the thing that is right" and the friends did not. A good answer says verse 6 cannot mean Job admits hidden guilt, because the Lord immediately vindicates him. A weak answer reads verse 6 as proof that the friends won the debate.
Show teacher guidance
Whatever 'abhor' and 'repent' entail, verse 7 rules out the conclusion that Job is finally admitting the friends were right about his hidden guilt.
6. What has changed by the end of verse 6 even though Job still has not received the chapter 1 explanation?
What a good answer contains
Job still does not know about 1:6-12. Nothing in his circumstances has changed yet. But he no longer treats his own understanding as large enough to judge God's governance of the world. He has moved from "I desire to reason with God" (13:3) to "I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me" (42:4), now as a learner. A strong answer sees that the change is in his posture before God, not in his knowledge of the cause. A weak answer assumes Job must have been given an explanation.
Show teacher guidance
His posture changes: he no longer treats his grasp of the case as large enough to judge the whole.
7. What exactly does the Lord say the three friends got wrong in verse 7?
What a good answer contains
"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" (42:7). The friends spoke wrongly about God, not only about Job. By insisting that God always punishes sin with suffering, they misrepresented how God governs the world. A strong answer sees that the Lord calls Job "my servant" again, as in 1:8 and 2:3. A weak answer says the friends were only unkind, missing that the charge is about their theology.
Show teacher guidance
He says they did not speak of Him the thing that is right as Job did.
8. Why is Job’s role in verses 8–9 striking after everything the friends have said to him?
What a good answer contains
The friends must take seven bullocks and seven rams, "go to my servant Job", and offer a burnt offering, and "my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept" (42:8). The men who told Job to repent must now depend on his prayer. A good answer sees the reversal: Job, whom they called guilty, is the one through whom they are restored. It also recalls 1:5, where Job offered sacrifices for his children. A weak answer misses that Job must pray for those who hurt him.
Show teacher guidance
The men who presumed to correct Job must now bring offerings and receive his intercession.
9. What does verse 10 connect with the turning of Job’s captivity?
What a good answer contains
"And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends" (42:10). Turned the captivity means restored his fortunes. The restoration is placed at the moment of his prayer. A strong answer sees that Job is restored while forgiving, not after being proved right in argument. A weak answer reads the verse as a reward formula, as if prayer for others is a technique for getting things back; the book gives no such rule.
Show teacher guidance
The verse says it occurs when Job prayed for his friends.
10. What does verse 11 add that a list of doubled livestock would miss?
What a good answer contains
Job's brothers, sisters and old acquaintances come and "did eat bread with him in his house". They "bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him", and each gives money and a gold ring (42:11). A good answer sees that the community that abandoned him in 19:13-19 returns, and that they do what the friends set out to do in 2:11 and failed to do. A weak answer skips this verse to get to the doubled livestock.
Show teacher guidance
Brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances come, eat bread with Job, comfort him concerning the evil that came upon him.
11. How should the class speak about the seven sons and three daughters in verses 13–15?
What a good answer contains
Call them what verse 13 calls them: seven sons and three daughters, born to Job after his restoration. They are gifts in his later life, not replacements for the ten who died in 1:19. The livestock doubles in 42:12, but the children do not. A strong answer notices that and does not speak as though the first children were cancelled out. A weak answer says Job got his family back, which the text does not say and which wounds anyone who has lost a child.
Show teacher guidance
Call them later children and gifts in Job’s restored life.
12. What is distinctive about the treatment of Jemima, Kezia, and Keren-happuch?
What a good answer contains
"And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch" (42:14). The sons are not named; the daughters are. They are called the most beautiful women in the land, and "their father gave them inheritance among their brethren" (42:15). A good answer sees that daughters inheriting alongside sons was unusual in the ancient world, and that the Book of Job ends with this act of generosity. A weak answer notes only their beauty.
Show teacher guidance
They are named, their beauty is noted, and their father gives them inheritance among their brothers.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Compare Job’s language in 42:3 with the Lord’s language in 38:2. Identify what Job now accepts about the limits of his own speech.
Relationships and community
Use 42:6–7 to show why a person may need correction without making their accusers correct.
Repentance without rewriting the book
List what Job actually admits in verses 1–6 and what he never admits.
Restoration without erasure
Compare Job 1 and 42, distinguishing doubled possessions from persons who are never interchangeable.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
Job 42:1–6
45 minutes
What Job heard
Read 38:1-3 and 40:1-5 briefly to remind the class what Job is answering.
Thou canst do every thing
Read 42:1-2 and take question one.
The echo
Read 42:3 beside 38:2. Take questions two and three, and confusion one.
Now mine eye seeth thee
Read 42:4-5 and take question four. Link to 19:26-27.
Dust and ashes
Read 42:6-7. Take questions five and six, and confusion two.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together and pray to know God and not only to know about him.
90 minutes
Hearing and seeing
Ask the group the difference between knowing about someone and knowing them. Take a few examples.
What Job heard
Read 38:1-3, 38:4, 40:2 and 40:4-5 to set the scene.
God first
Read 42:1-2 and take question one. Compare with 9:2-4 and 23:13.
The echo
Read 42:3-4 beside 38:2-3 and 40:7. Take questions two and three, and confusion one. Do the first application.
From hearing to seeing
Read 42:5 and 19:25-27. Take question four and confusion three.
Dust and ashes
Read 42:6 with 2:8 and 30:19. Explain the translation question. Take question five and confusion two.
Verse 6 with verse 7
Read 42:6-7 together. Take question six and confusion four. Do the third application: what Job admits and what he never admits.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse, point to the take-home line, and pray.
Job 42:7–17
45 minutes
The verdict
Read 42:7-9 and take questions one and two. Use confusion three.
Restored while praying
Read 42:10 and take question three. Use confusion one.
Bread and comfort
Read 42:11 beside 19:13-19. Take question four and confusion four.
New children
Read 42:12-15 with 1:2-3. Take questions five and six, and confusion two, with care for the bereaved.
Full of days
Read 42:16-17 and do the third application, comparing chapters 1 and 42.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together. Ask each person to name someone they need to pray for, and pray.
90 minutes
How it ends
Ask the group how they would expect the Book of Job to end. Take answers and keep them visible.
The verdict
Read 42:7-9. Take questions one and two and confusion three. Compare with 1:5.
Prayer for the friends
Read 42:10 and take question three. Do the first application: compare 42:7-9 with the friends' confidence in the debates.
The community returns
Read 42:11 with 19:13-19 and 2:11. Take question four and confusion four. Do the second application on relational repairs.
Restoration without erasure
Read 42:12-15 with 1:2-3. Take questions five and six, and confusions one and two. Name the first children and give a moment of silence.
Full of days
Read 42:16-17 and Genesis 25:8. Do the third application.
The whole book
Return to the opening answers. Trace the book from 1:1 to 42:17 in a few sentences together.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse, point to the take-home line, and pray for someone who has wronged you.
Adapting the lesson
Job 42:1–6
Children
Tell children that after God spoke, Job said: God, you can do anything. I used to just hear about you, but now I know you. Ask: what is the difference between hearing about someone and meeting them? Talk about knowing God as a friend, not only learning facts about him. Leave out the self-abhorring language.
Youth
Ask whether they know God by hearing about him from parents, church or school, or by meeting him for themselves. Read 42:5 and let them think about it privately. Then discuss 42:3: what it means to say you spoke about things you did not understand. Make clear that Job was not admitting the friends were right, using 42:7.
Adults
Give time to the translation question in 42:6 and to the precise content of Job's confession. Adults who have spoken bitterly to God in grief may fear that this passage condemns them. Show that Job's words were corrected but that he was vindicated over the friends. Let the group talk about the difference between hearing of God and seeing him.
One to one
If the person feels guilty for what they said to God in a hard time, read 42:3 and 42:7 together. Job was corrected and also vindicated. If they long to know God more personally, read 42:5 and ask what would move them from hearing to seeing. Do not press 42:6 as a demand for self-reproach.
Job 42:7–17
Children
Tell children that at the end God told Job's friends they had said wrong things about him, and asked Job to pray for them. Job did, and God blessed Job again with animals, family and friends who came to eat with him. Talk about praying for people who have been unkind. Present the new children simply as more children God gave Job, without suggesting the first ones were forgotten.
Youth
Start with 42:8-10: Job prays for the people who hurt him most. Ask what it would take to do that. Then read 42:13-15 and point out the daughters' names and inheritance. Talk about how the ending is happy without being simple. Some will have lost family members; make clear that the new children did not replace the old.
Adults
Give time to the theological weight of 42:7, the verdict that settles the whole debate. Then discuss the restoration honestly: what it does and does not teach. Adults who have lost children, health or livelihood and have not been restored need to hear that the book's ending is grace, not a promise for everyone. Spend time on 42:11 and the place of community in restoration.
One to one
If the person has been wronged by people who claimed to speak for God, read 42:7-8 and talk gently about Job praying for his friends. Do not insist they forgive on your timetable. If they have lost someone, read 42:13 and say clearly that the new children did not replace the first. Ask what restoration, if any, would mean to them.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Job 42:1–6
The passage in brief
In Job 42:1-6 Job answers the Lord. He confesses that God can do everything and that no purpose of his can be stopped. He admits that he spoke about things he did not understand, things too wonderful for him. He says that before he had only heard about God, but now he has seen him. He humbles himself in dust and ashes. Job still has not been told why he suffered, but he has met God, and that changes him.
A verse to keep
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:5 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What does Job say about God in 42:2 before he says anything about himself?
What does Job admit in 42:3, and what does he not admit?
Do you know God mostly by hearing about him, or have you also met him?
This week
Spend time this week speaking to God and listening, rather than only learning about him.
Job 42:7–17
The passage in brief
Job 42:7-17 ends the Book of Job. The Lord tells Eliphaz and his two friends that they have not spoken rightly about him, as Job has. They must offer sacrifices, and Job prays for them. When Job prays for his friends, the Lord restores his fortunes and gives him twice as much as before. His family and friends come to eat with him and comfort him. He has seven sons and three daughters, whose names are given and who receive an inheritance. Job lives a long life and dies old and full of days.
A verse to keep
And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:10 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What does the Lord say the friends did wrong in 42:7?
Why do you think Job's restoration begins when he prays for his friends?
Who is someone who has hurt you that you could pray for this week?
This week
Pray by name this week for one person who has wronged you, as Job prayed for his friends.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
