Job 42:16,17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

After this Job lived a hundred and forty years Some conjecture that he was seventy when his troubles came upon him: if so, his age was double, as his other possessions. And saw his sons, and his sons' sons Though his children were not doubled to him, yet in his children's children they were more than doubled. As God appointed to Adam another seed instead of that which was slain, Genesis 4:25, so he did to Job with advantage. God has ways to repair the losses, and balance the griefs, of those who are deprived of their property, or are written childless, as Job was when he had buried all his children, and was robbed of all his sheep and cattle by the Chaldeans and Sabeans. So Job died, being old and full of days He lived till he had enough of life, for he died שׂבע ימים, sebang jamim, satisfied with days; that is, satisfied with living in this world, and willing to leave it; not peevishly so, as in the days of his affliction, but piously so; and, as Eliphaz had encouraged him to hope, he came to his grave like a shock of ripe corn in its season. By the great length of Job's days, namely, two hundred and ten years, it seems most probable that he lived before the time of Moses, for at and after that time the days of human life were much shortened, as that man of God complained, Psalms 90:10.

Job 42:16-17

16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.

17 So Job died, being old and full of days.