What Does Job 42:9 Mean?
So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according to the word the LORD had spoken to them, and the LORD lifted up the face of Job.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The LORD’s “acceptance” is a lifted face: favor restores Job to regard after others have contested him.
THE MEANING
The friends do what the LORD commands, and Job is received with favor. “Accepted” carries the picture of a face being lifted: the one under dispute is brought into regard, and his prayer is received. The verse holds together a human act of repair and the LORD’s favor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Other people’s condemnation is not the final word over a person’s standing.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשָּׂא
wayyiśśāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
“lifted up the face of Job” in this verse is wayyiśśāʾ. The Hebrew pictures the LORD “lifting the face of Job.” The same root can describe lifting and bearing, so acceptance here is more than a verdict: Job is raised into favor and personal regard.
ALSO GROWS
massa: Burden, load.
מַשָּׂא
This branch names what is carried; the root’s image of bearing gives “accepted” the texture of someone being lifted into regard.
nasi: Leader, prince; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
A leader’s title carries the image of being lifted up, echoing the favor expressed when the LORD lifts Job’s face.
THE PATTERN
Favor is pictured as a face lifted toward another, turning acceptance into a visible act of regard.
The LORD lift up his face upon you, and give you wholeness.Many say, Who will make us see any good? LORD, lift up the light of your face upon us.Therefore take hold of one another, as the Anointed One also took hold of us, to the end that God is given weight.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Look, I have lifted up your face also concerning this word, that I will not overturn this city of which you have spoken.The Hebrew uses the same lifted-face idiom: “I have accepted thee” is nasa panim. Here favor grants Lot’s request; Job, too, is met with lifted regard.
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