Job 42:7

42:7-9 After the Lord had convinced and humbled Job, and brought him to repentance, he owned him, comforted him, and put honour upon him. The devil had undertaken to prove Job a hypocrite, and his three friends had condemned him as a wicked man; but if God say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, it is of little consequence who says otherwise. Job's friends had wronged God, by making prosperity a mark of the true church, and affliction a certain proof of God's wrath. Job had referred things to the future judgment and the future state, more than his friends, therefore he spake of God that which was right, better than his friends had done. And as Job prayed and offered sacrifice for those that had grieved and wounded his spirit, so Christ prayed for his persecutors, and ever lives, making intercession for the transgressors. Job's friends were good men, and belonged to God, and He would not let them be in their mistake any more than Job; but having humbled him by a discourse out of the whirlwind, he takes another way to humble them. They are not to argue the matter again, but they must agree in a sacrifice and a prayer, and that must reconcile them, Those who differ in judgment about lesser things, yet are one in Christ the great Sacrifice, and ought therefore to love and bear with one another. When God was angry with Job's friends, he put them in a way to make peace with him. Our quarrels with God always begin on our part, but the making peace begins on his.

(7) And it was so. —The verdict that is spoken against the friends of Job is based rather on the tone and spirit of what they have said than on any of their actual words, for many of these are conspicuous for their wisdom, truth, and beauty. But throughout they had been on the wrong side, and seemed to think that the cause of God had need to be upheld at all risks, and that it might even be required to tell lies for God ( Job 13:7 ); and it was this that provoked the Divine indignation.

Job 42:7 . After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job — Jehovah, having confounded all the false reasonings of Job, and sufficiently humbled his pride, now proceeds to the condemnation of the principle upon which his three friends had proceeded in all their speeches, which principle he declares not to be right.

The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite — God addresses him, because he was the eldest of the three, had spoken first, and by his example had led the rest into the same mistake which he himself had committed; My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends — Elihu is not hre reproved, because he had dealt more mercifully with Job than these three had done, and had not condemned his person, but only rebuked his sinful expressions; for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right — Because they had laid it down as a certain maxim, that all (without exception) who were afflicted with such grievous calamities as Job was, must needs be under the wrath of God, as being guilty of some notorious crime; and that all who passed through life in prosperity must needs be accounted as righteous in the sight of God: whereas God wills that we should know he does not judge of men according to their condition in this life, but according to their spirit and conduct; and should always be assured that he is averse to the wicked, however prosperous they may be, and always approves of and regards the righteous, whatever afflictions they may suffer; because the divine wisdom and goodness often see most wise reasons, which we cannot comprehend, why the righteous should struggle with adversities even all their life long, and the wicked have every outward and temporal good through the whole course of their lives.

7 . the thing which is right ] The Lord blames the three friends for not speaking that which was right concerning Him , not concerning Job; He also commends Job for speaking what was right concerning Him. It is obvious that the three friends spoke many just and profound things concerning God, and that Job on the other hand said many things that were both blameworthy and false, things for which he was both rebuked by the Almighty, and expressed his penitence. The reference cannot be to such things as these. Neither can the charge made against the friends here be merely that brought against them by Job, that they did not speak in honesty and sincerity (ch. Job 6:25 , Job 13:7 ), though this may be included. Rather, the friends are blamed for speaking in regard to God that which was not right, or true, in itself ; and the reference must be to the theories they put forth in regard to God’s providence and the meaning of afflictions. On this point the friends spoke in regard to God what was not right, while Job spoke that which was right (ch. Job 21:23-24 ). The Author puts the Divine imprimatur on his own theory of the meaning of suffering, or at least on Job’s attacks on the theories advocated by the three friends. The three friends “had really inculpated the providence of God by their professed defence of it. By disingenuously covering up and ignoring its enigmas and seeming contradictions, they had cast more discredit upon it than Job by honestly holding them up to the light.

Their denial of its apparent inequalities was more untrue and more dishonouring to the divine administration, as it is in fact conducted, than Job’s bold affirmation of them. Even his most startling utterances wrung from him in his bewilderment and sore perplexity were less reprehensible than their false statements and false inferences” (Green, Book of Job , p. 219). Ch. Job 42:7-17 . Job, having humbled himself before God, is restored to a prosperity two-fold that which he enjoyed before 7–9 . Job is commanded to intercede for his three friends lest Jehovah should visit their folly upon them, because they spoke not that which was right concerning Him.

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 {f} right, as my servant {g} Job hath. (f) You took in hand an evil cause, in that you condemned him by his outward afflictions, and not comforted him with my mercies. (g) Who had a good cause, but handled it evil.

Verse 7. - And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job . The "words" intended seem to be those of ch. 38-41, not any words in the earlier portion of this chapter. God heard Job's confession in silence, and, without further speech to him, addressed Eliphaz and his "friends." The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends. The superior position of Eliphaz is here very strongly recognized - he alone is mentioned by name, he alone addressed directly. The precedence thus given to him accords with that which he holds, both in the earlier historical narrative ( Job 2:11 ) and in the dialogue ( Job 4:1 ; Job 15:1 ; Job 22:1 ). For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Job had, on the whole, spoken what was right and true of God, and is acknowledged by God as his true servant. The "comforters," consciously or unconsciously, had spoken what was false. Even if they said what they believed, they ought to have known better. Job 42:7

Job 42:7-17. Epilogue, in prose. 7. to Eliphaz—because he was the foremost of the three friends; their speeches were but the echo of his. right—literally, "well-grounded," sure and true. Their spirit towards Job was unkindly, and to justify themselves in their unkindliness they used false arguments (Job 13:7); (namely, that calamities always prove peculiar guilt); therefore, though it was "for God" they spake thus falsely, God "reproves" them, as Job said He would (Job 13:10). as … Job hath—Job had spoken rightly in relation to them and their argument, denying their theory, and the fact which they alleged, that he was peculiarly guilty and a hypocrite; but wrongly in relation to God, when he fell into the opposite extreme of almost denying all guilt. This extreme he has now repented of, and therefore God speaks of him as now altogether "right."

To Eliphaz the Temanite; as the eldest of the three, and because he spoke first, and by his evil example led the rest into the same mistakes and miscarriages. Thy two friends, to wit, Bildad and Zophar, who are not excused, but severely reproved, although they, were drawn into the sin by Eliphaz’s authority and influence. Elihu is not here reproved, because he dealt more justly and mercifully with Job, and did not condemn his person, but only rebuke his sinful expressions. As my servant Job hath; either, 1. As Job hath now spoken: you have not acknowledged your errors as he hath done. Or rather, 2.

As Job did in his discourses with you; which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, (as is manifest from God’s censure upon Job for his hard and evil speeches of him,) but comparatively, because Job was not so much to be blamed as they; partly, because his opinion concerning the methods of God’s providence, and the indifferency and promiscuousness of its dispensations towards good and bad men, was truer than theirs, which was that God did generally reward good men and punish sinners in this life; partly, because their misbelief of God’s counsels and dealings with men was attended with horrid uncharitableness and cruelty towards Job, whom they wounded with bitter and injurious speeches, and condemned as a hypocrite, not only without sufficient evidence, as not being able to search his heart, but upon false and frivolous grounds, to wit, his sore afflictions, and against many evidences of piety which Job had given; and partly, because Job’s heavy pressures might easily cloud and darken his mind, and draw forth his impatience and passionate speeches; which although it did not wholly excuse Job, yet did certainly much extenuate his offences; whereas they were under no such temptations or provocations, either from God or from Job, but voluntarily broke forth into their hard, and severe, and untrue expressions concerning God’s counsels and Job’s conditions, thereby adding affliction to him whom God did sorely afflict, which was most unfriendly and inhuman.