The ending of the Book of Job outwardly resembles the happy ending of a frightening fairy tale. But in reality it is not so. Or rather, it is so in the sense that the end truly was happy for Job. But the return of the former happy times described by the author of the book must be considered more of an allegory...
The ending of the Book of Job outwardly resembles the happy ending of a frightening fairy tale. But in reality it is not so. Or rather, it is so in the sense that the end truly was happy for Job. But the return of the former happy times described by the author of the book must be considered more of an allegory. It is very reminiscent of the promises Job's friends made to him when they demanded repentance from him and assured him that, if he repented, God would return his former happy days to him.
But it was genuinely hard to describe in any other way the change that took place in Job. After all, he did indeed, as is clear, become a happy man. Because his life was renewed. It became full and complete again. This is what the sacred writer is speaking about. But the form used to describe the new life remained the old one. The reason here is not only that the changes most of all did not, in the first place, touch Job's outward life. The issue is that Job understands in a new way what he had already known before: the path of righteousness.
He had always wanted to walk this path. He defended his righteousness because otherwise his whole life would have become meaningless. And now the true path of righteousness is opened to Job in all its fullness: as a path in God's world before God's face. The point here is not that all Job's problems were solved at once. The point is the world that was opened to him and that became for him a prototype of the Kingdom. Still, in the moment of meeting God, in the ecstasy a person experiences then, he often truly forgets his problems.
Even his physical condition is experienced differently by such a person. It is possible that after meeting God, Job was healed of his physical illnesses. But the main thing was still not this. The main thing was that Job received answers to the questions that troubled him. And he saw that life has meaning. That this meaning is brought into it by God. And that even if a person at times loses it, God can help him find again what was lost. If only he asks Him for this and does not retreat, no matter how much those around him dissuade him and urge him to be "more modest" and "more pious." And then God will answer. And a new life will come. In God's great world. On the threshold of the Kingdom.
42 Job throughly humbles himself before God, Job 42:1-6.
God reproves his friends, for whom Job intercedes, and God accepts them, Job 42:7-9.
God blesses and restores Job to his prosperity, Job 42:10-15.
His age and death, Job 42:16-17.
42:10 Captivity - All his bodily distempers were thoroughly healed, and probably in a moment. His mind was calmed, his peace returned, and the consolations of God were not small with him. Prayed - Whereby he manifests his obedience to God and his true love to them.
42:11 Then - When Job had humbled himself, and God was reconciled to him. Sisters - His kindred. Eat - Feasted with him, to congratulate with him God's great and glorious favour. Bemoaned - They declared the sense which they had of his calamities while they were upon him, although they had hitherto wanted opportunity to express it.
42:12 Blessed - Not only with spiritual, but also with temporal blessings. Just double to what they were, chap.Job 1:3. This is a remarkable instance of the extent of the Divine providence, to things that seem minute as this, the exact number of a man's cattle; as also of the harmony of providence, and the reference of one event to another: for known unto God are all his works, from the beginning to the end.
42:14 Jemima - The day, either because of her eminent beauty, or because she was born in the day of his prosperity, after a dark night of affliction. Kezia is the name of a spice of a very fragrant smell, commonly called Cassia. Keren - happuch signifies plenty restored.
42:15 So fair - In the Old Testament we often find women praised for their beauty, but never in the New, because the beauty of holiness is brought to a much clearer light by the gospel.
42:16 After this, etc - Some conjecture, that he was seventy when his trouble came. If so his age was doubled, as his other possessions.
42:17 Full of days - So coming to his grave, as Eliphaz had spoken, like a ripe shock of corn in its season.