Job’s Intercession: Antidote to Divine Folly The Book of Job closes with the hero’s restoration. Job recovers his family, fortune and social position, but this happy end used to be considered of little theological value as it seems to contradict the points painstakingly made through the preceding dialogues (1). It is our contention that the Epilogue is the key to the entire book. The present essay demonstrates how Job 42,8 resolves the tensions developed in the narrative and elevates Job to the position of intercessor to soothe the effects of divine folly. 1. Job’s Partial Restoration With twice as many heads in his new herds (compare Job 1,3 and 42,12), twice as many sons (2), surrounded by family and acquain- tances, Job could consider himself a happy man. Yet, the title of a recent monograph on Job 42 places the adjective ‘happy’ between inverted commas, suggesting that Job’s happy end does not see the protagonist restored to the status quo ante but rather emerging scarred and transformed (3). Job 42,12 reports that “YHWH blessed Job’s after more than his before”, yet his loathsome sores are never said to have healed. Since YHWH agreed with the satan that striking Job in the flesh was the ultimate test (Job 2,7), the failure to mention Job’s healing gives the lie to Eliphaz’s claim that Shaddai both wounds and heals (Job 5,18). Job’s healing may be included in the blanket expression “The Lord (1) See D.J.A. CLINES, “Deconstructing the Book of Job”, The Bible as Rhetoric (ed. M. WARNER) (London 1990) 65-80. (2) hn[bç is a dual form of seven: E. DHORME, A Commentary on the Book of Job (London 1967) 651-652; A. GUILLAUME, Studies in the Book of Job (Leiden 1968) 140; HALOT, 1401. The non-doubling of the number of daughters reflects their legal status. While the fruits of a woman’s labour benefited her husband, the marriage usually did not sever her ties to her agnatic group who remained the one who had to pay compensation for any misdeeds the woman may commit even after her marriage: F.H. STEWARD, “Customary Law among the Bedouin of the Middle East and North Africa”, Nomadic Societies in the Middle East and North Africa (ed. D. CHATTY) (HdO 81; Leiden 2006) 259. (3) K.N. NGWA, The Hermeneutics of the ‘Happy’ Ending in Job 42:7-17 (BZAW 354; Berlin 2005).