Now Mine Eye Seeth Thee

"Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not… I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

"And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept."

"And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." His brothers, sisters and acquaintances eat with him, comfort him, and each gives him a piece of money and a gold ring. He has 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 she-asses.

"He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days."

The daughters' names

Jemimah means "dove"; Keziah is cassia, a fragrant spice; Keren-happuch is "horn of eye-paint" (kohl, the dark make-up stored in horn containers). The sons are not named. The daughters inherit with their brothers, unusual in biblical law, where daughters inherited only if there were no sons (Numbers 27:1–11).

Doubled, except the children

The flocks are exactly doubled (compare 1:3). The children are not: again seven sons and three daughters. Jewish and Christian interpreters noticed and suggested that the first children were not lost forever, so Job had twice as many. The text itself does not say this; the new children do not replace the dead.

A piece of money

The qesitah (42:11) is an ancient unit of value, otherwise found only in Genesis 33:19 and Joshua 24:32, from the patriarchal stories. The storyteller gives the epilogue an archaic, patriarchal colour.

What does 42:6 say?

The Hebrew is 'al ken em'as ve-nihamti 'al 'afar va-efer. Em'as means "I reject" or "I despise" but has no object ("myself" is supplied). Nihamti can mean "I repent," "I am sorry," "I change my mind," or "I am comforted." "Upon dust and ashes" can mean in mourning on the ash heap, or about the human condition ("dust and ashes," Genesis 18:27). Possible renderings: "I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (KJV); "I retract my words and am comforted concerning dust and ashes"; "I reject (my case) and change my mind about (being) dust and ashes." The library's Greek (Giguet): "I despise myself; I am confounded; I feel that I am but dust and ash" (the underlying Greek verb etakēn means "I melted away"). The Vulgate: "I reprove myself and do penance in ashes." The Aramaic Targum from Qumran (11Q10) is reported to read something like "I am poured out and dissolved, and I shall become dust and ashes" (to be checked in DJD).

"Spoken of me the thing that is right"

God says twice that the friends did not speak nekhonah ("what is right, true, firm") "of me" or "to me" ('elai), as Job did. Job's protests, even his hardest words, are judged truer than the friends' defence of God. The prepositions allow "to me": Job spoke to God, the friends only about him.

The Greek ending (42:17a–e)

Greek Job adds: "And it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up." Then: "This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia; and his name before was Jobab." It gives his wife as Arabian, his son Ennon, and lists the kings of Edom from Genesis 36, identifying Job with Jobab son of Zerah of Bozrah. The library's Church Slavonic (42:17) and Sahidic Coptic (42:18) contain it; our copy of Giguet's French leaves those verses blank (a data gap). The Greek also gives Job 170 more years and 240 in all (Giguet; 248 in the Slavonic and Coptic), against the Hebrew's 140. See the investigation "Was Job Jobab?"