Job 42:1-17 - Exposition

This concluding chapter divides into two parts. In the first part ( Job 42:1-6 ) Job makes his final submission, humbling himself in the dust before God. In the second (verses 7-17) the historical framework, in which the general dialogue is set, is resumed and brought to a close. God's approval of Job is declared, and his anger denounced against the three friends, who are required to expiate their guilt by a sacrifice, and only promised forgiveness if Job will intercede on their behalf (verse 8). The sacrifice takes place (verse 9); and then a brief account is appended of Job's after life—his prosperity, his reconciliation with his family and friends, his wealth, his sons and daughters, and his death in a good old age, when he was "full of days" (verses 10-17.). The poetic structure, begun in Job 3:3 , is continued to the end of Job 3:6 , when the style changes into prose of the same character as that employed in Job 1:1-22 ; Job 2:1-13 ; and in Job 32:1-5 .