Footnotes

1. Job 42:3 tn The expression “you asked” is added here to clarify the presence of the line to follow. Many commentators delete it as a gloss from Job 38:2. If it is retained, then Job has to be recalling God’s question before he answers it.
2. Job 42:3 tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.
3. Job 42:3 tn Heb “and I do not understand.” The expression serves here in an adverbial capacity. It also could be subordinated as a complement: “I have declared [things that] I do not understand.”
4. Job 42:3 tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.
5. Job 42:4 tn This phrase, “you said,” is supplied in the translation to introduce the recollection of God’s words.
6. Job 42:5 sn This statement does not imply there was a vision. He is simply saying that this experience of God was real and personal. In the past his knowledge of God was what he had heard—hearsay. This was real.
7. Job 42:6 tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).
8. Job 42:7 tn Heb “the Lord.” The title has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9. Job 42:7 tn Heb “is kindled.”
10. Job 42:7 tn The form נְכוֹנָה (n^ekhonah) is from כּוּן (kun, “to be firm; to be fixed; to be established”). Here it means “the right thing” or “truth.” The Akkadian cognate kīnu means “true, just, honest, firm” (CAD K: 389).
11. Job 42:8 tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.
12. Job 42:8 tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”
13. Job 42:8 tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”
14. Job 42:8 tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.
15. Job 42:8 tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.
16. Job 42:8 sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.
17. Job 42:9 tn The expression “had respect for Job” means God answered his prayer.
18. Job 42:10 tn The paragraph begins with the disjunctive vav, “Now as for the Lord, he….”
19. Job 42:10 sn The expression here is interesting: “he returned the captivity of Job,” a clause used elsewhere in the Bible of Israel (see e.g., Ps 126). Here it must mean “the fortunes of Job,” i.e., what he had lost. There is a good deal of literature on this; for example, see R. Borger, “Zu šub šb(ī)t,” ZAW 25 (1954): 315-16; and E. Baumann, ZAW 6 (1929): 17ff.
20. Job 42:10 tn This is a temporal clause, using the infinitive construct with the subject genitive suffix. By this it seems that this act of Job was also something of a prerequisite for restoration—to pray for them.
21. Job 42:10 tn The construction uses the verb “and he added” with the word “repeat” (or “twice”).
22. Job 42:11 tn Heb “ate bread.”
23. Job 42:11 tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (q^esitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown.sn The Hebrew word refers to a piece of silver, yet uncoined. It is the kind used in Gen 33:19 and Josh 24:32. It is what would be expected of a story set in the patriarchal age.
24. Job 42:11 sn This gold ring was worn by women in the nose, or men and women in the ear.
25. Job 42:13 tn The word for “seven” is spelled in an unusual way. From this some have thought it means “twice seven,” or fourteen sons. Several commentators take this view, but it is probably not warranted.
26. Job 42:14 sn The Hebrew name Jemimah means “dove.”
27. Job 42:14 sn The Hebrew name Keziah means “cassia.”
28. Job 42:14 sn The Hebrew name Keren-Happuch means “horn of eye-paint.”