Exegetical Brief: Did Job 'Repent'? (42:6)

Abstract

The book of Job is replete with hapax legomena, unusual spellings, vexing text-critical questions, and highly compressed and elliptical constructions. Usually the main point is still discernible, but many scholars have found the point of 42:6 to be somewhat elusive—which is unfortunate in view of the significance of the verse within the book’s message. One often hears that Job “repented” after the theophany in the whirlwind. But did he—and of what exactly?