And thus Job answered the Lord:

I acknowledge it, thou canst do all thou wilt, and no thought is too difficult for thee.

Here indeed is one that clouds over the truth with his ignorance! I have spoken as fools speak, of things far beyond my ken.

Henceforth it is my turn to speak, thine to listen; my turn to ask questions, thine to impart knowledge!

I have heard thy voice now; nay, more, I have had sight of thee;

now I am all remorse, I do penance in dust and ashes.✻

And now, his converse with Job finished, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Themanite, You have earned my displeasure, thou and these two friends of thine, by speaking amiss of me as my servant Job never did.

To Job you must go for your ransoming, with seven bulls and seven rams to offer in burnt-sacrifice; he, my servant, shall intercede for you, and for his sake your folly shall be pardoned, that spoke amiss of me when he spoke the truth.

So away they went, Eliphaz the Themanite, Baldad the Suhite, and Sophar the Naamathite, and did the Lord’s bidding. For Job’s sake the Lord pardoned them;

and, as he prayed for these friends of his, the Lord relented at the sight of his penitence. So he gave back to Job twice over all that he had lost.

Clansmen and clanswomen and all his old acquaintances gathered about him now, and sat down as guests in his house, and made great ado bemoaning all the afflictions the Lord had sent him; not one of them but gave him presents, a sheep and a gold ear-ring apiece.

A richer man the Lord made Job now than ever he had been in old days; fourteen thousand sheep he had, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.

Seven sons he had, and three daughters,

the first he called Fair as the Day, and the second Sweet as Cassia, and the third Dark Eye-lids.✻

Nowhere might women be found fair as Job’s daughters, and each had the same patrimony as her brothers.

Job himself lived on for a hundred and forty years, to see sons and grandsons and a new generation yet of his descendants; so he died at last as old men die, that have taken their full toll of the years.