SUMMARY
After Job intercedes for his three unhelpful friends, the LORD restores Job’s fortunes.
ANALYSIS
Job intercedes for his three friends who have never interceded for him, and community is restored. His brothers and sisters come to comfort him, and then God gives him back twice as much as he had before.
For many readers of Job, the epilogue (42:7-17) seems too neat, too simplistic, too much a “happy ending” to the difficult questions raised by the rest of the book. After God speaks, it seems apparent that there are no easy answers to our questions about human suffering. Yet the book closes as if Job is rewarded by hanging in there and being faithful even in the midst of great suffering. That looks suspiciously like the view of just retribution promoted by Job’s friends and challenged by Job’s experience.
To be sure, God needed to do something to repair the damage done to Job. God had put him through all this suffering because of a challenge from the Satan. God needs to do something to make it right. So Job receives twice what he had lost (compare the numbers from chapter 1). It is important to note that Job does not receive twice as many children. He had seven sons and three daughters at the beginning. They all died. But God does not give him twenty in return. Again, he has seven sons and three daughters. It would be unseemly to treat children as if they were property that can be lost and replaced. God has not left Job childless. Job again has a family and will see his children’s children before he dies. But the ten children who died are gone. They will be remembered and mourned, even though Job has new children in whom he can rejoice. So, even though it looks like a “happy ending,” it is not that simple. There will always be some sadness for Job when he thinks about those ten children who are with him no more.
Biblical scholar Ellen Davis offers an additional perspective. She writes of the new set of children, “It is useless to ask how much (or how little) it costs God to give more children. The real question is how much it costs Job to become a father again. How can he open himself again to the terrible vulnerability of loving those whom he cannot protect against suffering and untimely death?” [Ellen F. Davis, Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament (Cowley, 2001), 142]. This is a profound insight. Job chooses to live again, to have more children after the cataclysm, even though he knows the potential for heartbreak that such a choice entails. This is a courageous and life-affirming choice (and a choice that unfortunately not all bereft parents can make). Job, in other words, has been transformed by his encounter with God, and the epilogue reflects that transformation.
