42
Job Speaks: I Admit That I Was Wrong
1 Then Job answered the Lord,
2 “I know that you can do everything
and that your plans are unstoppable.
3 “⌞You said,⌟ ‘Who is this that belittles my advice
without having any knowledge ⌞about it⌟?’
Yes, I have stated things I didn’t understand,
things too mysterious for me to know.
4 “⌞You said,⌟ ‘Listen now, and I will speak.
I will ask you, and you will teach me.’
5 I had heard about you with my own ears,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
6 That is why I take back what I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show that I am sorry.”
Job’s Life Is Restored
7 After the Lord had said those things to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz from Teman, “I’m very angry with you and your two friends because you didn’t speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done. 8 So take seven young bulls and seven rams. Go to my servant Job, and make a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you. Then I will accept his prayer not to treat you as godless fools. After all, you didn’t speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done.”
9 Then Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah, and Zophar of Naama went and did what the Lord had told them to do. And the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
10 After Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored Job’s prosperity and gave him twice as much ⌞as he had before⌟. 11 Then all his brothers and sisters and everyone who had previously known him came to him. They ate with him at his house, sympathized with him, and comforted him for all the evil the Lord had brought to him. Each one gave him some money and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter years of Job’s life more than the earlier years. He had 14,000 sheep and goats, 6,000 camels, 2,000 oxen, and 1,000 donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first ⌞daughter⌟ Jemimah, the second Cassia, and the third Keren Happuch. 15 Nowhere in the whole country could be found women who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters. Their father gave them and their brothers an inheritance.
16 Job lived 140 years after this. He saw his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.* 17 Then at a very old age, Job died.
* 42:16 Or “grandchildren, four generations.”