On the Restoration of Job: Poetics and Meaning in Job 42

Abstract

The epilogue of Job, for no immediately obvious reason, links the restoration of Job’s wealth to his prayer on behalf of his friends. In doing so, it deploys a formulation that features redundancy and multiple philological irregularities. These compositional choices serve several objectives. Particularly on the assumption that Job, in his final speech, maintains an abidingly defiant posture toward God, his prayer constitutes a prerequisite for his restoration. Indeed, in subtle ways, the text emphasizes the prayer’s pivotal role. The text’s odd formulation, for its part, generates inner-biblical parallels that contribute to meaning. One parallel invokes a wider correlation to the Joseph story, implying that Job, in contrast to the victimized Joseph, must extend forbearance to his offenders before regaining wealth and stature. Another parallel helps intimate that Job recovered from his malady, a development that the text, because of an understandable concern, does not wish to state explicitly.