Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, came to him and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 11. Brethren. Who had before shamefully abandoned him. Calmet. 6:13. Calmet.—Bemoaned. Lit. “shaked their heads at him,” ( Bible.) out of pity, ( Menochius.) or astonishment, ( Tirinus. Calmet.) at his fallen state, and at the present change for the better. They helped to restore him to affluence, in conformity with the will of God, who caused their presents of multiply. The kindred and friends of Job were undoubtedly numerous. Bible.—Ewe. Kesita, “lamb,” as most of the ancients agree, (Spanheim) or a piece of money, (Bochart) marked with the figure of a lamb. Grot. See Genesis 33:19. Calmet.—Ear-ring. Hebrew Nezem, an ornament ( Bible.) “for the nose,” still very common in the East. Sym. adds, “it was unadorned,” ( Calmet.) or plain. Septuagint “a piece of gold worth four drachms, and not coined,” ασημον. Bible.—Oleaster supposes that the nose was perforated, like the ear. But the ornament would thus be very inconvenient, and we may rather conclude that it hung down from the forehead upon the nose. Saint Jerome in Ezec. xvi. Pineda.
literally, kesitah, a unit of money, probably silver