And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and Jehovah gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job's story ends with a prayer, not with an argument won. He prays for the three men who had spent chapters accusing him, and everything turns. The verse ties his release to that prayer. So what was holding him captive, and why did God wait for this before giving back what was lost?
The ESV says the LORD "restored the fortunes of Job." Older translations read "turned the captivity of Job," and that is the wording the writers below use. One of them finds the release starting inside the man himself:
"And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends" — a beautiful expression of the work of grace. It was not merely that He turned their punishment away when Job prayed, but He turned Job's own captivity when his heart went out on their behalf. Job himself was now consciously set free. Until this moment he had felt like a captive held in a tight grip; but Jehovah turned his captivity when he prayed for his friends. His heart was active in grace; he had seen grace, and now he expressed grace, and this too for the very people who had wounded him most.
Job's prayer grew out of his own dealings with God, and it reached the very men he had been fighting:
So we find that when Job got right about God and himself, he soon got right about his friends, for he learned to pray for them. Yes, he could pray for the "miserable comforters," the "worthless physicians," the very men with whom he had contended so long, so firmly, and so fiercely! "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends."
Picture the scene at the moment of prayer.
It must have been an extraordinary scene. Verse 10 shows that the turn in Job's bodily condition and in his fortunes came when he had prayed for his friends, and not before. Here were the three friends, well-dressed gentlemen of the east with their sacrifices; Job, a wasted figure, covered with boils. Yet this poor physical wreck is in touch with God, and able to hold up his hands in gracious and priestly intercession. When had anything like this been seen in the east?
Job had offered sacrifices before, for his own children. This prayer is of a different order:
How good it is to see how God connects Job's intercession with his return to prosperity. Earlier, Job had offered burnt offerings for his sons, in case they had cursed God in their hearts (Job 1:5). Now he interceded with a God he had come to know in a new way, One who spoke to him, and whom he had seen.
The order matters: the inward change came first, and the outward recovery followed.
God blessed Job abundantly, turning his captivity and giving him twice as much as he had before. He did this when Job had prayed for his friends — and not till then... Yet God did not let that tide of earthly blessing roll in upon Job again until he had been deeply changed in spirit and character. When at last he was brought near to God, he acted as a priest in a way that reflected the goodness and kindness of God; then everything outward changed. The boils disappeared, health returned, the ashes were left behind... Job, then, was not a loser but a gainer by God's dealings, even in material things.
The doubling was not payment for services rendered. It was God leaving proof on record of what He is:
But Jehovah also gave Job twice as much as he had before, for the book could not end without a witness to God's goodness even outwardly... But Job only held fast to God because God held fast to Job. That was the real root of the matter. It is grace after all that gives and keeps integrity. But God was not unrighteous to forget Job.
One writer reads the closing chapter through James's picture of the farmer waiting for his crop:
The chapter is the farmer's harvest. The words "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord" introduce the mention of "the steadfastness of Job" and "the purpose of the Lord." The farmer works in hope, and gets his fruit at harvest. And so Job endured, till at last the one who sowed reaped. (James 5:7-11)
- Captive. Job's real imprisonment was inward, and it broke the moment his heart moved out toward others in grace.
- Prayer. Being put right with God about himself made him able to pray for the very men who had wounded him most.
- Priest. Still covered in sores, he lifted his hands for his accusers. He now knew the God he was praying to.
- Order. The boils went and the wealth came back only after the inward work was done. God never rushes the outward ahead of the inward.
- Harvest. Twice as much was not wages but witness. God would not forget the man He Himself had held fast — and the same harvest waits for all who endure.
And all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they condoled with him, and comforted him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him; and every one gave him a piece of money, and every one a golden ring.
The relatives and old friends who arrive at Job's table are the same people who had kept their distance while he sat in ashes. What moved them was not Job's recovery of health alone but a change that had already happened inside him — and commentators note that God's blessing waited for that change.
Nothing outward shifted until Job stopped defending himself and started praying for the men who had wounded him.
God blessed Job richly, restoring his fortunes and giving him twice as much as he had before. He did this when Job had prayed for his friends — and not till then. The blessings of those days were earthly and material. They stand in contrast with "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3), which is the distinctive portion of the Christian. Yet God did not let the tide of them roll in upon Job again until he had been deeply altered in spirit and character.
Job's wealth doubled, but not because a shrewd man rebuilt it.
But how? By what means? Was it by his own independent hard work and clever management? No; everything is changed. Job is on new moral ground. He has new thoughts of God, new thoughts of himself, new thoughts of his friends, new thoughts of his circumstances; all things have become new.
The sympathy in this verse arrives only after the trial is over.
Human comfort is sometimes given generously when the trial is over and gone. In Job's case he was left alone in the hour of his grief. Only his "friends" were there, and their help irritated more than it soothed. But when the Lord "restored the fortunes of Job" and gave him "twice as much as before," then his brothers and sisters and all his old acquaintances came to comfort him. Such comfort as this may do for fine weather, but it is useless in a storm.
The verse traces Job's suffering to God, not to Satan — even though chapters 1 and 2 showed Satan at work. One writer insists the text means what it says.
It was not Satan's lightning, but God's, that struck Job's property; God's whirlwind, not Satan's, that destroyed his family. Satan had demanded this — "Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has" (Job 1:11). Job sees only God's hand in his affliction — "the LORD has taken away" (v. 21). And God Himself says to Satan, "you incited me against him to destroy him without reason" (Job 2:3).
Commentators put this in different ways. Another draws a sharper line between Satan and God:
One thing is worth noticing: it was Satan, not God, who killed Job's children, destroyed his possessions, and struck him with boils. God certainly permitted it — not only to prove Satan a liar, but also to teach Job a lesson he needed.
Each visitor brought a piece of money and a gold ring. Job had his wealth back already, so these gifts met no need.
We need not think of it as heartless or formal. God put it into their hearts to recognise His approval and acceptance of His servant. All his wealth is doubled — cattle, sheep and all the rest. What are such details to Him who is the Possessor of heaven and earth!
The final scene is God's public verdict on a man He had seemed to abandon.
The time has not yet come to set right everything that is crooked, or to remember every good and righteous deed. Even so, the LORD does not let His saint go without a proof of His interest and His blessing. Job therefore received even then this testimony of what God is. He did not forget the man who had passed through such a storm of trial, and who had held on to Him when He seemed to be against His servant... But Job only held fast to God because God held fast to Job. That was the real root of the matter. It is grace after all that gives and keeps integrity. He showed what He thought of it all, even before the day of reward came. The fullest testimony of respect and confidence poured in from all his relatives and even his acquaintances.
The ending also speaks to readers still inside their own trial.
God restored the fortunes of Job. Just as surely, He will bring every suffering child of God into the inheritance that is "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading."
- Turned — Job prayed for the friends who had wounded him. Only then did God restore his fortunes.
- Renewed — The restoration was not clever management. Job stood on new moral ground, with new thoughts of God, himself, his friends and his circumstances.
- Late — The sympathy of relatives arrived only after the storm passed. Such comfort does for fine weather and is useless in a storm.
- Traced — The text lays the evil at God's door. Job saw only God's hand; commentators differ on how much to lay at Satan's door.
- Kept — Job held fast to God because God held fast to Job. Grace both gives and keeps integrity. God restored Job, and He will as surely bring every suffering believer into the inheritance.
And Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.
Job's story does not end in ashes. He judges himself, prays for the friends who had wounded him, and then God gives back flocks and herds at twice their old size.
The order matters. One writer marks it: Job himself was changed first, and the outward change followed.
God blessed Job abundantly, turning his captivity and giving him twice as much as he had before. He did this when Job had prayed for his friends — and not till then. The blessings of those days were earthly and material. The Christian's distinctive portion is different: "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Yet God did not let that tide roll in upon Job again until Job had changed deeply in spirit and character. When at last he came near to God and acted as a priest, reflecting the goodness and kindness of God, everything outward changed.
The increase was not the reward of shrewd recovery. Another writer asks how it came, and points to the man himself.
But how? By what means? Was it by his own independent hard work and clever management? No; everything is changed. Job is on new moral ground. He has new thoughts of God, new thoughts of himself, new thoughts of his friends, new thoughts of his circumstances; all things have become new.
The verse invites you to compare it with chapter one, and the sums come out precisely.
What a change this was for Job, when the lesson was learned that there was nothing in himself but vileness... If he had lost seven thousand sheep, now he has fourteen thousand; and so with the camels, the oxen, and the donkeys.
Why record livestock counts at all? The answer lies in what the ending had to show about God.
But the Lord also gave Job twice as much as he had before, for the book could not end without a witness to God's goodness even outwardly. It is not yet the time for setting right all that is crooked, or for remembering every good and righteous deed. Even so, the Lord does not let His saint go without a proof of His interest and His blessing... But Job only held fast to God because God held fast to Job. That was the real root of the matter. It is grace, after all, that gives and keeps integrity. But God was not unrighteous to forget Job.
God doubled everything except the family: ten children lost, ten given. Commentators differ on what that means. Some read it as a quiet hint about the first ten.
Is this an exception to the double gift? Or is it a hint that those other children, seven sons and three daughters, are not lost? Will he one day have them restored, and in resurrection find that everything has been doubled?
Others reject that reading and take the new family simply as new, finding the meaning instead in the daughters' names.
This does not mean, as some suppose, that they were not new sons and daughters, but that the restoration is one of resurrection. Such a view cannot be held. The sons and daughters were born to him. The names of the three daughters are given: Jemimah (a dove), Keziah (cassia), Keren-happuch (flashes of glory). Such were the blessed results of Job's experience, expressed by these names: purified and humble like the dove; cassia, which means fragrance, worship and adoration; and the flashes and splendour of glory.
The closing chapter reaches beyond one man's fortunes. One writer sees in it the world God will yet make.
But at the close of the action, the scene is set in "the world to come." It is God's world and not man's, the world which His power is to form and His principles are to fill. It is the time of refreshing and restoring. In Job 42 we are, in spirit, in the Millennium... The farmer works in hope and gets his fruit at harvest, or in resurrection. And so Job endured, until at last the one who sowed reaped. This chapter is the farmer's harvest.
Not every sufferer gets sheep back. The blessing given now is of another kind, and it can still double.
This too is one great purpose God always has in all His discipline. Today the blessings given are spiritual and not material, as we have seen. But many an aged believer would testify that God used their very trials and sorrows to lead them into an enjoyment of His spiritual gifts twice as great as the one they started with.
- Order — First Job judged himself and prayed for his friends. Only then came the doubling — "and not till then."
- Source — The increase came from God's hand, not from clever management. Job stood on new moral ground, with new thoughts of God and of himself.
- Measure — Seven thousand sheep became fourteen thousand. The book ends with proof that God "was not unrighteous to forget Job."
- Exception — The children alone were not doubled. Some writers hear a hint that the first ten will be restored in resurrection. Others see a new family, with the daughters' names carrying the fruit of Job's trial.
- Reach — The restored scene pictures the coming kingdom. For believers now the same principle holds: trials can end in an enjoyment of God twice as great as before.