Job 42:12 - Exposition

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning (comp. above, verse 10). The restoration of prosperity, prophesied by Eliphaz ( Job 5:18 26), Bildad ( Job 8:20 , Job 8:21 ), and Zophar ( Job 11:13-19 ), but not expected by Job, came, not in consequence of any universal law, but by the will of God, and his pure grace and favour. It in no way pledged God to compensate worldly adversity by worldly prosperity in the case of any other sufferer; and certainly the general law seems to be that such earthly compensation is withheld. But, in combination with the instinct which demands that retributive justice shall prevail universally, it may be taken as an earnest of God's ultimate dealings with men, and a sure indication that, if not on earth, at least in the future state; each man shall receive "the deeds done in the body," according to that he hath done, whether it be good or evil. For he had (rather, and he had ) fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses . In every case the exact double of his original possessions (see Job 1:3 ; and comp. above, Job 1:12 ). We need not suppose, however, that either the round numbers, or the exact duplicity, are historical.