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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 Genesis 18:27 and Job 42:6

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Genesis 18, Abraham calls himself dust and ashes as he speaks with humility in pleading for Sodom. Job 42 uses the same language when Job acknowledges his own frailty at the end of his trials.

Passages

Genesis 18:27

Hebrew Bible
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?” 26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom 50 godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord (although I am but dust and ashes), 28 what if there are five less than the 50 godly people? Will you destroy the whole city because five are lacking?” He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.” 29 Abraham spoke to him again, “What if 40 are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the 40.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Job 42:6

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

References

"... When it comes to the interpretation of ונחמתי על־עפר ואפר, I follow de Wilde ... The expression (“dust and ashes/dirt”) occurs only in Genesis 18:27; Job 30:19b; 42:6b; Sirach 10:9 (Ms A); and Sirach 40:3 (Ms B). See also Sirach 17:32b (LXX). In Genesis 18:27 Abraham humbly says to God (“I am dust and ashes”) when he pleads in Sodom’s defense. In Job 30:19b Job points out that he is at death’s door: (“and I have become like dust and ashes”). This means that it refers to the physical constitution of a human being, more particularly to his/her condition sub specie aeternitatis (Genesis 18:27), his/her frailty and transitoriness (Job 30:19). This interpretation is confirmed by Sirach 10:9 (Ms A): “why are dust and ashes proud // even during life his intestines are putrefied”; and Sirach 17:32b (LXX): “and all men are dust and ashes”. It is also in accordance with the translation of the LXX of Job 42:6: “I consider myself dust and ashes”; in the same vein 11QtgJob (“and I am become dust and ashes”). And finally, it is in accordance with the traditional Targum: מבניי דהינון עפרא וקטם (“for my children who are dust and ashes”). Otherwise, only Sirach 40:3 (Ms B): “from him who sits on a throne in pride // to him who is humiliated in dust and ashes ..."
Pieter van der Lugt, “Who Changes His Mind about Dust and Ashes? The Rhetorical Structure of Job 42:2–6,” VT 64 (2014): 623–639.

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Genesis 18:27 and Job 42:6

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