God's Restoration Of Job's Health And Wealth
The book of Job culminates in a dramatic restoration of Job's health and wealth, a reversal of fortune that follows his period of intense suffering and his intercession for his friends. Job 42:10 states, "After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions" [1]. This restoration is presented as "the end of the Lord," signifying the ultimate outcome God intended for Job's trials [6].
Job's restoration encompasses several key aspects. Primarily, it involves the return of his material prosperity. The text explicitly states that the Lord "doubled his former possessions" [1]. This included his livestock, which increased to 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 2,000 oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys [5]. While some interpretations suggest that Job's friends contributed to this rapid accumulation of wealth through their gifts of cattle and gold [5], the primary agent of restoration is identified as the Lord [1]. This material blessing contrasts sharply with Job's earlier lamentations over his lost prosperity, which he recalled with deep feeling [8]. Despite his immense wealth, Job had previously protested that he never "set his heart upon the wealth of this world" or made it his ultimate happiness [9].
Beyond material possessions, Job's health was also restored. Although Job 42:10 specifically mentions prosperity, scholarly interpretation suggests that "Job’s fortunes probably included his health" [10]. This aligns with earlier passages in the book where Elihu speaks of God restoring a person's physical well-being: "his flesh shall be fresher than a child's" [11]. This physical renewal is likened to Naaman's cleansing in 2 Kings 5:14 and, in a spiritual sense, to regeneration [11]. The idea of God restoring health is also present in Job 33:30, which speaks of God bringing souls back from corruption and illuminating them with the light of the living [2]. Similarly, Job 33:26 describes God being favorable to a person, allowing them to see His face with joy, and restoring their righteousness [3]. The name "Jesaiah" itself, meaning "health, or salvation, of the Lord," reflects this concept of divine restoration [4].
The restoration also signifies a return to a state of favor with God. John Gill interprets the phrase "the Lord turned the captivity of Job" not as a literal physical captivity, but as a restoration from his afflictions and calamities to a happy state. This includes the return of his substance, health, and friends, and importantly, his deliverance from Satan's oppressive influence [7]. This turning of captivity represents a comprehensive reversal of his suffering.
The social dimension of Job's restoration is also significant. After his ordeal, his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances returned to him. They ate bread with him in his house, showed him sympathy, and comforted him for all the adversity the Lord had brought upon him [12]. Each of them also gave him a piece of money and a gold ring [12]. These gifts were not merely charity to rebuild his finances but served to honor him as an influential man and perhaps to assuage any disfavor [12]. This communal act of consolation highlights the reintegration of Job into his social network, which had been severely strained during his suffering. The presence of his family and friends provided comfort where his initial three friends had failed [12].
The narrative of Job's restoration serves as an encouragement to those who endure suffering. As the apostle James notes, "You have heard of the patience of Job... and have seen the end of the Lord" (James 5:11). This "end of the Lord" refers to the prosperous condition to which Job was eventually restored, confirming the blessedness of those who persevere through trials [6]. The book thus presents Job's patience under affliction as an example, and his subsequent prosperity as an encouragement to follow that example [6]. God's ultimate purpose is to bless humanity, not to curse them, and Job's restoration underscores this divine intention [10].
Sources
- Job “Job 42:10 (BSB) — After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions.”
- Job “ut revocet animas eorum a corruptione, et illuminet luce viventium. -- Job 33:30”
- Job “He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness. -- Job 33:26”
- Hitchcock's Bible Names “Hitchcock's Bible Names: Jesaiah — health, or salvation, of the Lord”
- Job (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Job 42:12: The Lord blessed the latter end of Job - Was it not in consequence of his friends bringing him a lamb, sheep, or other kind of cattle, and the quantity of gold mentioned, that his stock of sheep was increased so speedily to 14,000, his camels to 6000, his oxen to 2000, and his she-asses to 1000? Mr. Heath takes the story of the conduct of Job's friends by the worst handle; see Job 42:11. Is it not likely that they themselves were the cause of his sudden accumulation of property? and that they did not visit him, nor seek his familiarity because he was now prosperous; b”
- Job (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Job 42:10: You have heard of the patience of Job (says the apostle, Jam 5:11) and have seen the end of the Lord, that is, what end the Lord, at length, put to his troubles. In the beginning of this book we had Job's patience under his troubles, for an example; here, in the close, for our encouragement to follow that example, we have the happy issue of his troubles and the prosperous condition to which he was restored after them, which confirms us in counting those happy which endure. Perhaps, too, the extraordinary prosperity which Job was crowned with after his afflictions wa”
- Job (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Job 42:9: And the Lord turned the captivity of Job,.... Not literally, in such sense as Lot's captivity was turned, Gen 14:12; for Job's person was not seized on and carried away, though his cattle were: nor spiritually, being delivered from the captivity of sin; that had been his case many years ago, when first converted: but it is to be understood of his restoration from afflictions and calamities to a happy state; as of the return of his substance, his health and friends, and especially of his deliverance from Satan, in whose hands he had been some time, and by him distressed b”
- Job (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Job 29:1: Losers may have leave to speak, and there is nothing they speak of more feelingly than of the comforts they are stripped of. Their former prosperity is one of the most pleasing subjects of their thoughts and talk. It was so to Job, who begins here with a wish (Job 29:2): O that I were as in months past! so he brings in this account of his prosperity. His wish is, 1. "O that I were in as good a state as I was in then, that I had as much wealth, honour, and pleasure, as I had then!" This he wishes, from a concern he had, not so much for his ease, as for his reputation ”
- Job (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Job 31:24: Four articles more of Job's protestation we have in these verses, which, as all the rest, not only assure us what he was and did, but teach us what we should be and do: - I. He protests that he never set his heart upon the wealth of this world, nor took the things of it for his portions and happiness. He had gold; he had fine gold. His wealth was great, and he had gotten much. Our wealth is either advantageous or pernicious to us according as we stand affected to it. If we make it our rest and our ruler, it will be our ruin; if we make it our servant, and an instru”
- Job (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Job 42:10: 42:10 Job’s fortunes probably included his health (42:16-17). God created humans in order to bless them, not curse them.”
- Job (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Job 33:25: Effects of restoration to God's favor; literally, to Job a temporal revival; spiritually, an eternal regeneration. The striking words cannot be restricted to their temporal meaning, as used by Elihu (Pe1 1:11-12). his flesh shall be fresher than a child's--so Naaman, Kg2 5:14, spiritually, Joh 3:3-7.”
- Job (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Job 42:11: 42:11 Although Job was restored, he still needed to be consoled and comforted for the loss of his children. Following Job’s own earlier practice (4:4; 16:5), his family and former friends took up where the three other friends left off (2:11; cp. 2 Cor 7:6). • The gift of money was not so much charity to provide a financial basis for Job’s restored fortune as it was to honor and seek the favor of an influential man (e.g., Prov 18:16), and perhaps even to assuage disfavor (e.g., Gen 32:20; 33:10; 43:11; 1 Sam 25:27). • A gold ring was worn in a woman’s nose (Gen 24:47”