פירוש על איוב 42:20

Job’s Reply
I knew that You can do everything That You can do anything that pleases You.

The moment has come for the final denouement of this drama: the revelation that Job had really never lost his faith and had emerged from the trial with his integrity intact. He had never really ceased to believe in Providence, free-will, the immortality of the soul or redress in the hereafter. However, knowledge is preferable to blind faith and matters as important as these should not be shrouded by ignorance; they should not be just incomprehensible mysteries. Accordingly, his intention in initiating the symposium had been to find a way of substantiating these fundamental tenets by means of rational investigation and philosophical contemplation; for this purpose, someone had to adopt the position of denying their existence. However, the attempts made by the other debaters to substantiate these tenets were totally unconvincing. Employing God’s own words, Job explains that it was in the light of this that he had called on Him to appear and enlighten his understanding of these matters.

and no design is restrained from You He repeats his words, that no design or plan is restrained or withheld from You, that You can complete and fulfill Your plans, for strength and might are in Your hand, and You have the power to do all that pleases You. This verse is similar to (Gen. 11:6), “Now will nothing that they have planned to do be restrained (יבצר) from them?”

Who is this who concealed and covered the counsel and the wonders of the Holy One, blessed be He, without knowledge? I knew that everything is in Your hand to do, and so I related some of Your mighty deeds as were in my heart; as I knew [them].

In his reply to God, Job paraphrases the very challenge God had made to him at the beginning of His oration (Job 38:2). It was because he did not want God's design to remain just a matter of faith, shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, that he had initiated the debate.
Responding to God in His own words (Job 38:3), Job explains that just as He had called for answers from Job, so Job had been seeking answers from God. Job's contention had been that rational answers should be given to the great issues raised by ethical monotheism; they should not be just matters of faith. And if man is unable to find these rational answers unaided, God ought to provide them.

but I did not understand But I did not understand so much, as You informed me, for many wonders are hidden and concealed from me, which I do not know.

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear Many many times I have heard of You. and now, my eye has seen You Your Shechinah.

But all this had been before God appeared to him in a prophetic vision. Now, through the experience of prophecy, Job has been graced with sure knowledge of those truths that previously he could only believe, and perhaps even doubt at times, viz. that God oversees and governs every detail of the world;⁴⁴For He had heard the debate between Job and his companions and had answered Job's call. that man’s soul is divine and has an existence distinct from that of his body; that his soul cleaves to its Sublime Source when separated from his body, as during a prophetic vision or after death;⁴⁵For other than by the separation of his soul from his body, there is no way that man can perceive God. that after death the soul returns to its abode with the Lord of Hosts which is of itself its reward in the hereafter.
Therefore do I forbear this life and am comforted for being just dust and ashes. For all the physical joy or suffering in this world is as nothing compared to one moment of the soul’s life with God in the hereafter: the true bliss reserved for the merit of the righteous souls.

Therefore Since I merited to see Your Shechinah. I despise I despise my life. on dust and ashes if I were resting in the grave, to return to dust and ashes whence I was taken.

and your two companions Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite.

Job may have uttered sinful things during the debate but he had not really meant them; in truth, he had remained faithful to God. However, just the opposite was true of his three companions: they may have defended God in the debate but had not really meant what they said. As Job had observed: "Were He to investigate you, would it do you any good if, as one beguiles a man, you tried to beguile Him?" (Job 13:9).

because you did not speak Because you did not speak to Me with a correct argument as did My servant Job, for he did not rebel against Me except for what he said (above 9:22), “He destroys both the innocent and the wicked,” and through the Adversary who denounces the world, as it is stated (ibid. verse 23): “If the scourge kills suddenly etc.” And if he continued to speak, he spoke because of the severity of the pains that burdened him and overwhelmed him; but you rebelled by condemning him, saying (4: 6), “Behold, your fear was your foolishness,” and you held him to be a wicked man, and at the end when you were silenced and defeated before him, you should have consoled him as Elihu did. Was it not enough for Job with his trouble and his sufferings, that you added rebellion to your sins to provoke him?

and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves So that you placate and appease Me, provided that My servant Job pray for you that I forgive your sins, and no longer remember your transgressions.

for I will favor him Heb. כי אם, because I will favor him to accept his prayer (thus the word אִם is used for “that”), and likewise (Gen. 24:19), “until (עד אם) they have finished drinking”; (Ex. 21:30), “in which case (אם) an atonement is placed on him,” and many others.

for...not Because...not.

and the Lord favored Job Heb. וישא, [lit. and the Lord lifted His countenance] as in (Gen. 19: 21), “I have favored you (נשאתי) also in this respect,” that He accepted his prayer and showed him a bright countenance.

Now the Lord returned Job’s captivity when he prayed [The word] שָׁב is inappropriate in this matter, and it is as though it were written: “And He returned (נשאתי) Job’s captivity when he prayed.”

Despite the terrible things they had said of him, Job intercedes with God on behalf of his three companions, just as he had in the past for his own children, and their offering is accepted. In reward for this generosity of spirit, God restored all Job’s losses and even doubled his fortune.
The book ends with God’s reconfirmation of Job’s virtue and integrity. All his losses are restored,¹Nahmanides suggests that Job's children had not really been killed nor had his possessions actually been destroyed. They had all only been hidden from him by Satan who had sent the messengers with news of their loss. His children and possessions are now restored to him. The former are endowed with still greater beauty and the number of the latter is doubled. his friends and family are reconciled and Job lives out the rest of his long life in peace and contentment.

for his friend In the merit that he prayed for each friend of his.

twice as much Heb. למשנה, for one, two; and Scripture was not exact in its wording.

previous All who were his friends and acquaintances before the sufferings befell him.

and they bemoaned him Complaindre in Old French, to complain.

one piece of money a ma’ah.

and each one and every one of them.

more than his beginning More than his former wealth.

fourteen Heb. שבענה. They were twice seven, two sevens, like (Lev. 12:5), שְׁבֻעַיִם which means two weeks.

And he named the first Jemimah They were named according to their beauty.

The Talmud (TB Berachot 17a) relates that whenever Rabbi Yochanan finished reading the Book of Job he would say: "The end of man is death and the beast’s end is slaughter; all are candidates for death. Happy is he who grew in Torah and labored in Torah; who gratifies his Maker’s spirit; who grows in repute and departs the world with a good name. Of such a one did Solomon say: ‘A good name is better than the finest oil; and the day of death than the day of birth’ (Ecclesiastes 7:1).

Jemimah Bright and white as the sun (יום).

Keziah She had a fragrant and perfumed scent like the spice, cassia.

Keren-happuch Because of the horn in which they put stibium and lixivium, as it is stated (Jer. 4: 30): “that you enlarge your eye with paint (בפוך).”

Nowhere...were women as beautiful as Job’s daughters to be found An instance of beautiful women like the phenomenon of the beauty of Job’s daughters was not found. This verse is on the pattern of (Num. 9:6), “But there was [an incident of] men who were unclean.”

and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers Because of (their esteem and) their beauty, he gave them an inheritance with their brothers.

and sated with days Heb. וּשְׂבַע.From וְשָׂבֵעַ he says וּשְׂבַע, in the construct state.