Job 42:4
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Hear, I beseech you, and I will speak: I will demand of you, and declare you to me.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Hear, I beseech you, and I will speak: I will demand of you, and declare you to me.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Give ear to me, and I will say what is in my mind; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.
Webster's Revision
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will ask of thee, and declare thou to me.
World English Bible
You said, 'Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.'
English Revised Version (ERV)
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Definitions for Job 42:4
Barnes's Job 42:4 Bible Commentary
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak - This is the language of humble, docile submission. On former occasions he had spoken confidently and boldly of God; he had called in question the equity of his dealings with him; he had demanded that he might be permitted to carry his cause before him, and argue it there himself; Notes, Job 13:3, and notes Job 13:20-22. Now he is wholly changed. His is the submissive language of a docile child, and he begs to be permitted to sit down before God, and humbly to inquire of him what was truth. "This is true religion."
I will demand of thee - Or rather, "I will ask of thee." The word "demand" implies more than there is of necessity in the original word (שׁאל shâ'al). That means simply "to ask," and it may be done with the deepest humility and desire of instruction. That was now the temper of Job.
And declare thou unto me - Job was not now disposed to debate the matter, or to enter into a controversy with God. He was willing to sit down and receive instruction from God, and earnestly desired that he would "teach" him of his ways. It should be added, that very respectable critics suppose that in this verse Job designs to make confession of the impropriety of his language on former occasions, in the presumptuous and irreverent manner in which he had demanded a trial of argument with God. It would then require to be rendered as a quotation from his own words formerly.
"I have indeed uttered what I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I know not,
(When I said) Hear now, I will speak,
I will demand of thee, and do thou teach me"
This is adopted by Umbreit, and has much in its favor that is plausible; but on the whole the usual interpretation seems to be most simple and proper.
Wesley's Job 42:4 Bible Commentary
42:4 Hear - Hear and accept my humble confession. Enquire - I will no more dispute the matter with thee, but beg information from thee.The words which God had uttered to Job by way of challenge, Job returns to him in way of submission.