11. The age of life, or the years of the life, of Job.
Inquiry is also made concerning the age of the life of Job. It is evident from Job 42:16 that after his restoration he lived one hundred and forty years. But the preceding years were not set down. But, because in Job 42:10 it is said that in the restoration God enlarged to Job all the things that he had לְמִשְׁנֶה, εἰς διπλασιασμόν, double; the Hebrews and others, interpreting this, as of goods, so also of age, gather that before the restoration he lived half the number of the one hundred and forty years, and so seventy years, and thus two hundred and ten years in all. But that doubling in the text is restricted to resources alone, not also to the years of life. His children were certainly not doubled. Moreover, since at the beginning of his sufferings he was already the father of ten children, Job 1:2, and those were already adults, as it is evident from their annual feasts: and the sufferings themselves were undoubtedly prolonged from several years, as the long duration of the afflictions objected against him by Eliphaz, Job 5:19, and Job’s complaints concerning the same, Job 6:11, 12; 7:6; 14:13; 29:2; etc., testify; perhaps they are not far from the truth, who assign at least sixty years to the period before the restoration, and so at least two hundred years to his life in all.