Job 42:11

11. All his sisters This is the first intimation given that Job had sisters; and as, consequently, they do not appear in the six classes Job enumerates of those who were estranged from him, (Job 19:13-14,) we may conjecture, at least, that they did not join in the general ill treatment of Job. It is deeply significant that no mention is made of Job’s wife after his return to prosperity. The last time she appears is in a painful allusion Job makes to her want of sympathy. Job 19:17.

All they that had been of his acquaintance Literally, all his knowers. Same term as in Job 19:13. They bemoaned him The Hebrew word noudh (same as in Job 2:11 see note) expresses oneness of feeling with the sufferer, whether it be of grief or joy, and corresponds to our word sympathize. Friends who stood aloof from him as the accursed of God, (see note. Job 2:8,) gather around him as evidences are given of the removal of the divine ban. “Of Job’s adversities the loss of friends was last; of his prosperities the return of friends was first.” Kitto.

A piece of money The etymological signification of the word קשׂישׂה , kesitah, is probably a piece weighed out, from kasat, to divide, measure, or weigh, (Furst.) A similar word is the Arabic kistah, from the same root, signifying a pair of scales, a balance; notwithstanding which, in the ancient versions, kesitah was rendered lamb. This ancient reading is accounted for by some on the supposition that the kesitah was stamped with the image of a lamb, in accordance with an Egyptian and Assyrian custom of making weights in the form of bulls, lions, and other animals. (See note on Job 6:2.) The most ancient coins of the Phoenicians, also, have the impress of a sheep. The Latin word for money, pecunia, finds its root in pecus, sheep or cattle. (Concerning the antiquity of coinage see RAWLINSON, Herodotus, 1:563-568.) The word appears, besides, in the Scriptures, only in Genesis 33:19, and Joshua 24:32, in both of which reference is made to the purchase of a “parcel of ground” by Jacob for a hundred kesitahs. That, these kesitahs could not have been sheep is probable from Acts 7:16, where we are told Jacob bought this piece of land for a “ sum of money.” By comparing Genesis 33:19, with Genesis 23:16, Gesenius supposes the value of the kesitah to have been about four shekels. It is generally assumed to have been of silver. Hitzig, on account of its association with the earrings of gold, thinks it also was gold. As this word appears elsewhere in the scriptures only in connection with the patriarchs, its use here affords evidence of the remote origin of this book.

Earring נזם , (same as in Genesis 24:22; Genesis 24:47,) is thought by Schroeder, Rosenmuller, and Gesenius to have been a nose-ring, and seems to have been, according to Exodus 32:3, an ornament for men as well as women. Madden ( Jewish Coinage, p. 3,) suggests that these rings may have been employed as a medium of exchange. Among the ancient Egyptians money consisted of rings of gold and silver, as represented on many of the monuments of Thebes. For a picture of these rings the reader is referred to page 60; also to WILKINSON’S Domestic Habits of the Egyptians, p. 92, for a like pictorial representation of scales, in which the weight bearing the impress of a sheep balances three rings. It is by no means improbable that three rings were of the value of one kesitah. Rings of gold are still used as a medium of exchange in Sennaar and neighbouring countries. It is the custom in Oriental countries, even to the present day, for those who go into the presence of the great to offer gifts, as a tacit recognition of their own inferiority. To such an extent is this system of symbolic gifts carried, that, according to Sir John Chardin, “It is the custom when one invites a superior, to make him a present after the repast, as it were in acknowledgment of his trouble. Frequently it is done before the repast it being no augmentation of honour to come to the house of one who is an inferior. But they make no presents to equals or those that are below themselves.” See HARMER’S Observations, (Adam Clarke’s edition,) 296-326; also WINER, Rwb. 1:411, 412. Among the Hebrews, in some cases, presents were brought to monarchs upon their recovery from some great calamity, and served both as tokens of affection and of homage. After the restoration of King Hezekiah from his grievous malady, many brought gifts unto the Lord and presents to Hezekiah, “so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from henceforth.” 2 Chronicles 32:23. Compare Psalms 76:11, and Isaiah 39:1.