Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
Read Chapter 42
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Offer. Septuagint, "Thou shalt make an oblation, karpoma, for you. "(Haydock)
Yet holocausts seem to have been the only species of sacrifice before Moses. The number seven, has always been in a manner sacred; (Calmet) being doubled, it shows the greatness of the offence. (St. Gregory) (Worthington)
Job was to present these victims to God, (Calmet) as the priest and mediator, (Du Hamel) of whom God approved. He officiated for his family, (Calmet) and was the most honourable person there. (Haydock)
It seems Job was not present when God gave this injunction; perhaps some time after their debates. (Calmet)
Pray. Behold the efficacy of the prayers of the saints, even while upon earth. How much greater will it be, when their charity is greater and unfailing! (Haydock)
The many sacrifices would not have sufficed, if Job had not joined his prayer, as St. Chrysostom (or 5 con. Judoeos) observes. His mediation did not derogate from God's mercy, under the law of nature; not does that of othe...
11. Behold the just and merciful God neither passes over their faults without reproof, nor yet leaves their guilt without conversion. For since He is our inward Physician, He first made known the corruptions of our wound, and afterwards pointed out the remedies for obtaining health. But we have already often said, [Pref. chap. 6] that the friends of blessed Job represent heretics, who offend God, while they endeavour to defend Him; for they are in their words rebels against the truth, which they imagine they are serving by their false assertions. Because therefore Almighty God frequently incorporates them into the body of Holy Church, through the knowledge of the truth; their conversion also, which is often mercifully effected, is well designated by this pardon which the friends of Job obtain.
12. But it must be specially observed, that they are ordered to offer to the Lord the sacrifice of their conversion, not by themselves, but by Job. Heretics doubtless, when they come back fro...
19. The Lord used these words a little before, and yet He again repeats and adds the same words. What is this, except that, by again repeating, He confirms the sentence which He had already pronounced in judgment? And, in order that the righteousness of blessed Job and the unrighteousness of his friends might be the more manifestly displayed, the praise of the one and the reproof of the other is brought forward by a repetition of the words, so that by being repeated outwardly, it might appear how firmly fixed they are held within. For when the king of Egypt had known in two visions the fearful seasons of the coming famine under the figure of kine and of ears of corn, he heard by the voice of the holy interpreter; For that thou hast seen a second time a dream pertaining to the same thing, it is a token of the certainty. [Gen. 41, 32] From which it is plainly collected, that whatever is repeated in the word of God, is more strongly confirmed. But since we have heard what the Judge has de...
He would have not ordered that if there had been the law, but now he becomes priest, while they bring offerings. Job had made sacrifices for his children; now he makes them for his friends. See how the text shows that Job is devoid of resentment. God takes [Job’s friends] as witnesses of the virtue of the man, and equally he shows the gravity of their fault through the extraordinary importance of the offering. He would have not needed such great victims if the faults to be expiated had not been so serious. He also shows that the sacrifice was not sufficient, “for,” he says, “but for his sake,” I would have not healed you from your guilt. In this manner he shows that he has forgiven them as well. “I would have destroyed you,” he says, “for but for his sake,” “because you have not spoken the truth against my servant Job.” Notice that even though they could speak with zeal as much as they wanted, they were accused just the same of saying nothing true, or rather, they did not speak with th...
