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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 Job 42:2 and LXX Job 42:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Job 42 says that no divine purpose can be stopped, using a word that can also mean “schemes” or “plots.” The Greek Septuagint avoids this potentially negative ambiguity by using the neutral translation that “nothing is impossible for you.”

Passages

Job 42:2

Hebrew Bible
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.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

LXX Job 42:2

Septuagint
1 Then Job answered and said to the Lord, 2 I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible with you. 3 For who is he that hides counsel from you? or who keeps back his words, and thinks to hide them from you? and who will tell me what I did not know, great and wonderful things which I did not understand?
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Job

References

"... it is likely that the targumist simply shrunk from the idea that Job could actually instruct or inform the all-knowing God about anything. Another example is found in Job 42:2 ... Here, too, the Septuagint paraphrases: “Nothing is impossible for you.” What difficulty did the ancient translators see? It is possible that the Hebrew word which is frequently used in malem partem in the Bible, had negative overtones for the targumist. He did not want to impugn God’s holiness by attributing to him an evil “plot” or “scheme” and therefore put “strength and wisdom” in its place ..."
Edward M. Cook, “The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums,” in A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism, ed. Matthias Henze (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 92–117.

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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Job 42:2 and LXX Job 42:2

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