Job’s Confession

42:1 Then Job answered the Lord:

42:2 “I know that you can do all things;

no purpose of yours can be thwarted;

42:3 you asked,1

‘Who is this who darkens counsel

without knowledge?’

But2 I have declared without understanding3

things too wonderful for me to know.4

42:4 You said,5

‘Pay attention, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you will answer me.’

42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye has seen you.6

42:6 Therefore I despise myself,7

and I repent in dust and ashes!

VII. The Epilogue (42:7–17)

42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he8 said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up9 against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right,10 as my servant Job has. 42:8 So now take11 seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede12 for you, and I will respect him,13 so that I do not deal with you14 according to your folly,15 because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.”16

42:9 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.17

42:10 So the Lord18 restored what Job had lost19 after he prayed for his friends,20 and the Lord doubled21 all that had belonged to Job. 42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined22 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 silver23 and a gold ring.24

42:12 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. 42:13 And he also had seven sons25 and three daughters. 42:14 The first daughter he named Jemimah,26 the second Keziah,27 and the third Keren-Happuch.28 42:15 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.

42:16 After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 42:17 And so Job died, old and full of days.