Job 42:9 - John Trapp Complete Commentary

Bible Comments

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite [and] Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

Ver. 9. So Eliphaz the Temanite, &c.] Here was resipiscentia ex fide constans, saith Brentius, the repentance of faith, the obedience also of faith readily yielded. Had not these been good and godly men they would have stuck at the cost of so great a sacrifice, they would also have scorned to have sought to Job, whom they had so much slighted, and to beg his prayers, of whom they had so ill deserved. But they had not so learned Christ. God, they saw well, was greatly offended and Job highly accepted; glad therefore were they by any good means to ingratiate, each of them saying to God for himself, as he did once to Caesar,

Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quam posse necesse est (Lucan) (Lucan).

Omne trahit secum Numinis ira malum (Ovid).

The Lord also accepted Job] Whether he testified his good acceptance by consuming his sacrifice with fire from heaven is uncertain. It is enough for us to know that he showed himself reconciled unto them, and well pleased with Job's prayer for them, and their own prayers joined no doubt with his, and proceeding from faith in the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. And hitherto God's decisive sentence, whereby all the strife was graciously ended, and all parties happily and heartily reconciled. What became of Satan, a chief actor in this tragedy, we read not; Victus enim abiit. And as God would not once call him to account, when he had beguiled our first parents, Genesis 3:1,7, because he meant him no mercy; so here he never mentioned him, as being judged already, and by Job bravely worsted and defeated. All that we find of him is, that his commisslon to vex Job any further was now taken away, for so it followeth,

Job 42:9

9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.b