Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 42:10

"And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: and Jehovah gave Job twice as much as he had before." — Job 42:10 (ASV)

When he prayed for his friends. —Job’s personal discipline was not complete until he passed from the sphere of his own sorrows to the work of intercession for his friends, and it was through the very act of this self-oblivion and self-sacrifice that his own deliverance was brought about. When he prayed for his friends, we are told, the Lord turned his own captivity: that is, restored and reinstated him in prosperity even greater than before.

This is the true moral of all human history, which is to be accomplished in the world of the regeneration, if not here. All sorrow is fraught with the promise and the hope of future blessedness, and to know that is to rob sorrow of its pain. It is impossible to reap the full gain of it when the burden presses, but, as far as it can be done, sorrow is mitigated. Had Job been able to look forward with confidence to his actual deliverance, he would have been able to bear his affliction; it was because he could not that all was dark.

And after all, there are sorrows and afflictions for which there is no deliverance like Job’s. There is a captivity that can never be turned in this life. For this, the only hope is the sure hope of the Gospel and the promise which, in its degree, is afforded by the history of Job. For if Job’s is a representative history, as we are bound to believe it must be, then its lesson must be that what is not explained or mended here will be explained and mended hereafter. It is God alone who can enlighten the darkness that surrounds His counsels; but at the same time, we must remember that with Him is the well of life, and in His light we shall see light.