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Job

About this book
Chapter 42

1 Then Job answered the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted;⁠ 3 you asked, ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But I have declared without understanding things too wonderful for me to know.⁠ 4 You said, ‘Pay attention, 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 has seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes!”⁠ 7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede for you, and I will respect him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job.⁠ 10 So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job.⁠ 11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers. 16 After this Job lived 140 years;⁠ he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, old and full of days.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 30:5 and Job 42:10

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy promises that the exiles will be regathered in the future, their fortunes restored, and their numbers increased beyond those of their ancestors. Job ends with a similar narrative reversal when his fortunes are restored after suffering.

Passages

Deuteronomy 30:5

Hebrew Bible
3 the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he has scattered you. 4 Even if your exiles are in the most distant land, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 Then he will bring you to the land your ancestors possessed and you also will possess it; he will do better for you and multiply you more than he did your ancestors. 6 The Lord your God will also cleanse your heart, and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your mind and being and so that you may live. 7 Then the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you and persecute you.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Job 42:10

Hebrew Bible
8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede for you, and I will respect him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job. 10 So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job. 11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

"... Deuteronomy 30:1-10 represents the quintessential promise of restoration beyond exile. The passage assumes Israel's future covenant breaking, the onslaught of the covenantal curses (Deuteronomy 28-29 [Hosea 5:9-14]), and Israel's location in exile (Deuteronomy 30:1 [Hosea 5:15]). At the center of this text is YHWH's promise to remedy the source of Israel's problem; that is, to circumcise their heart (Deuteronomy 30:6). Here the promise of YHWH healing Israel may pick up on this idea. Regardless, the promise from Deuteronomy 30:3 that YHWH will restore the fortunes of Israel depends upon YHWH's transformation of their obduracy in order to effect a return to YHWH and the land. While ("to restore fortunes") can refer more generally to the restoration of one's personal wealth or the overall spiritual restoration (e.g., Job 42:10), it often entails a return to the land from exile (e.g., Jeremiah 29:14; 30:3; 33:26). The proximity to 5:14-6:3, Hosea's earlier promises of restoration to the land (2:16-25 [English 14-23]; 3:5), and the allusion to Deuteronomy 30:3 lend support for understanding this passage as denoting a future promise of restoration and return to the land ..."
Derek Drummond Bass, “Hosea’s Use of Scripture: An Analysis of His Hermeneutics” (diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008), 190.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 30:5 and Job 42:10

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