Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:job Chapter 42 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of job, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Job 42
New Revised Standard Version
1Then Job answered the LORD:
2"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.'
5I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Epilogue
7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
8Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done."
9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them; and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.
10And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
11Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.
12The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.
13He also had seven sons and three daughters.
14He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.
15In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children's children, four generations.
17And Job died, old and full of days. PSALMS
1038PSALMS Introduction The Psalms is a collection of sung poetic prayers (see the Introduction to the Poetical and Wisdom Books) associated with divine worship in Israel. The word "psalm" is derived from the Greek "psalmos," which translates the Hebrew "mizmor"; these all mean a song recited to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. The times of composition for the psalms range across at least five centuries; the earliest psalm is probably Ps 29, which is adapted from early Canaanite worship, while several psalms contain contextual (e.g., Ps 126), linguistic, or other evidence that they are from the postexilic period (Ps 51; 114; 137). While psalms are Judean in origin, the language or internal references in several psalms suggest that they originated in the Northern Kingdom (e.g., Ps
80and 81, which contain references to Joseph); these most likely were brought to Judah after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom in
722BCE. The majority of the psalms, however, originated in the preexilic, monarchic period, and are associated with the Jerusalem Temple. HT TH The psalms likely functioned as a musical libretto for sections of the Temple worship, though exactly when and how they were used is unclear. Psalm 118.27, "The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar" suggests that some psalms were used in connection to the sacrifices, while Ps 141.2, "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice" might indicate that some were recited when the incense was offered. Several psalms contain allusions to musical performance (e.g., 13.6; 26.7; 30.4; 33.2-3), and may of the superscriptions (headings, though not included in this specific online version — see the NRSV) contain detailed, technical references to how the performance should be completed. Unfortunately, many of the technical terms that are ubiquitous in the PSALMS
1039psalms, including the frequent "Selah," are imperfectly understood, and it is thus very difficult to reconstruct with any certainty exactly how these poems were performed. (The term "Selah" was not included in this online version of Psalms.) From the beginning of the 20th century, many attempts have been made, especially by biblical scholars interested in form criticism (see "Form Criticism" in the related essays section), to follow clues in the psalms, in order to reconstruct the original "Sitz im Leben," or setting in life, of the psalms. This scholarship has suggested that the psalms are to be divided into several genres. The two main types are laments, forming approximately a third of the Psalter, and hymns. Laments can be either individual (Ps 3) or communal (Ps 44). The lament's component parts include the invocation of the name of God, the complaint wherein the psalmist describes the distress experienced, and appeals for divine intervention. Many of these laments include expressions of trust, couched in the past (Ps 6.9, "The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord accepts my prayer"). It is unclear if this is a reflection of the psalmist's great faith, which is furthered through the recitation of the psalms, or if part of the recitation of the psalm might have included a response to the lament by a cultic official, and the the psalmist might have expressed trust only after this divine reassurance, which does not usually appear in the psalm. The hymns typically focus on the role of God as creator (e.g., Ps 8; 19, 104) or redeemer (Ps 66; 98). These hymns are not connected to specific requests; they are reflective of the religious individual, who wants to have a close connection with God, in the belief that "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to your name, O Most High" (Ps 92.1). The Hebrew title of Psalms, "tehillim" ("praises"), reflects the significance of the genre of hymns to the book. Still other types of psalms may be isolated in Psalms. For example, Ps 15, which recounts the ideal qualities of the individual who "may abide in your tent" and "may dwell on your holy hill" (v. 1) is likely an entrance liturgy, recited by the worshiper while approaching the Temple. There are several royal psalms (Ps 2), which focus on the king. The number of these psalms, and by extension, the extent to which the Psalter should be viewed as a work with specifically royal focus, is debated, with some PSALMS
1040scholars contending that the "I" of the Psalter is typically the king. A handful of psalms (e.g., 37; 119) contain the vocabulary of the wisdom books — Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes — and focus on issues that characterize those books, such as righteousness in contrast to evil; for this reason, they are often called wisdom psalms. Several psalms, especially 93-99, focus on the kingship of God; it is unclear how these might have been used ritually, and especially if they might reflect a Judean New Year festival, which had significant parallels to a Babylonian festival, in which the deity was ritually reinstated as king. Form critics continue to debate the genres of specific psalms, the number of different genres contained in the Psalter, and the psalms' Sitz im Leben, namely the ways in which they were connected to ancient Israelite worship. The book of Psalms came together over a long period of time. This is clear from the final verse of Ps 72, "The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended." This is further reflected through the existence of several collections or anthologies within the Psalter; the clearest of these is composed of Ps 120-134, each of which begins "A song of ascents." Ps 42-83 are also a collection ("the elohistic Psalter"); these typically call the deity "elohim" (translated "God"), rather than "yhwh" (translated "Lord"), which typifies the rest of the Psalter. A comparison of Ps
14to the parallel Ps
53(from the elohistic Psalter) is especially enlightening as an illustration of the anthological nature of the Psalter. Clusters of psalms also begin or end with the words "halelu-yah," "Praise the Lord" (Ps 105-106; 111-113; 115-117; 146-150). This brief reconstruction of the history of the Psalter indicates that the early Jewish and Christian tradition, reflected among the Dead Sea community as well, that David composed the entirety of the book of Psalms, is secondary. The tradition arose from an interpretation of the many psalms that do begin "of David," a phrase understood to mean of Davidic authorship, as well as the traditions in other books that David was a poet and musician (1 Sam 16.16-17;
2Sam 1.17-27) and the patron of the Jerusalem Temple (1 Chr 29.1-5), constructed by his son, Solomon. The historical headings of several psalms (not included in this online NRSV version; see a print version) (Ps 3; 18; 34; 51) reflect early exegetical attempts to link the psalms with incidents in the life of PSALMS
1041David in 1-2 Samuel. This desire to connect the psalms directly to the life of David is further shown in additional historical headings found in the Septuagint, the second-century BCE translation of the Bible, as well as in later Jewish exegesis. These illustrate a movement away from understanding Psalms as a loose collection of liturgical works, to viewing it as a thematic book. This attempt to understand Psalms as a book is echoed in the manner in which the book is subdivided into five parts or books, through the secondary insertion of doxologies (detailed praises of God), at the end of Ps 41; 72; 89; 106, and through the functioning of the last psalm(s) of the Psalter (Ps 146-150 alone) as a doxology. Thus the book in its final form is structure as a Pentateuch (five books), just like the Torah. The reference to "the Torah (NRSV "law") of the Lord" in the introductory psalm (v. 2) suggests that, at some level, the book of Psalms as a whole is to be read as Torah and is to be studied as Torah. This may represent the period after the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE), when study of psalms replaced their liturgical recitation. There are thus many ways that the individual psalms might be read. In their earliest stages, they are individual compositions, recited for particular occasions at a variety of sacred sites. Later, some of these were anthologized, and might be understood within the anthology that they are in; e.g., Ps
123might be understood within the Songs of Ascent. Finally, individual psalms might be understood within the Psalter as a book, either narrating a biography of David, or a book of teaching like the Torah. The main function of psalms within later Jewish and Christian tradition, however, has been as a type of inspirational literature, where later worshipers may find proper words in tradition to express the depths of their religious experience and feelings. PSALMS
1042BOOK I (PSALMS 1-41)