Job 21-42

Summary

We find Clines’s Job 21 to 42 to be a thorough technical companion for the later speeches, the Lord’s addresses, and the book’s closing resolution. He helps us attend to the text’s argument and rhetoric, and he forces us to face the book’s tension without rushing to cheap closure.

As with the earlier volume, the approach is not confessional, so we read with care. Yet the close work can still serve us, especially when we keep Job’s canonical purpose in view and refuse speculative detours that blunt the book’s message.

Why Should I Own This Commentary?

We should own this commentary if we regularly teach Job and want a technical resource for the hardest stretches. The later dialogues can be complex, and the Lord’s speeches are often either over spiritualised or treated as mere poetry. This volume helps us stay with the text and argue carefully.

We also benefit from its sustained attention to the book’s rhetorical strategy. Job is not simply giving us answers, it is training the fear of the Lord, humbling our claims to mastery, and exposing the limits of human counsel. Careful reading helps us preach that pastoral aim with integrity.

For Reformed preaching, we treat this as a specialist supplement. Used wisely, it sharpens our reading, but we must do our own theological and Christward work responsibly.

Closing Recommendation

We recommend this as an advanced technical supplement for Job 21 to 42, useful with discernment and best paired with a clearly evangelical, church oriented commentary. It will serve those doing serious preparation and careful teaching in Job.

As a next step, we can visit the Bible Book Overview for Job, browse Top Recommendations, or use the Reformed Commentary Index to build a wiser, more balanced shelf.