Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 42:8

"Now therefore, take unto you 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, that I deal not with you after your folly; for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." — Job 42:8 (ASV)

Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams.—It is remarkable that the sacrifices prescribed for Job’s friends were similar to those which Balaam prescribed for Balak (Numbers 23:2–29). This is probably one indication out of many that the age of Job was that of Moses, or before it. My servant Job shall pray for you. This, strange to say, was the very promise with which Eliphaz himself had closed his third and last speech. His words therefore received a striking fulfillment in the case of himself and his friends.

The intercession of Job seems to show us that his character is a typical one, representing to us the character of Christ as the sufferer and the mediator on behalf of humanity. Furthermore, since Job shows no acquaintance with the Divine covenant, the book presents a sort of anticipation of the Gospel to the Gentile world. This, in turn, indicates that God's mercies are not limited, as some have thought, to the chosen race, but that the principles of God’s action are the same universally. He deals with people based on a principle of mediation: whether the mediator is Moses, as the mediator of the first covenant; or Job, who was the accepted mediator for his friends beyond the boundary of the covenant; or whether the mediator is Jesus Christ, as the one Mediator between God and humanity.