Job 29

Job 29:1-25.

1. Job pauses for a reply. None being made, he proceeds to

illustrate the mysteriousness of God's dealings, as set forth

(Job 28:1-28)

2. preserved me--from calamity.

3. candle--when His favor shone on me

(see on

Job 18:6

and

Ps 18:28).

darkness--By His safeguard I passed secure through dangers. Perhaps alluding to the lights carried before caravans in nightly

travels through deserts [NOYES].

4. youth--literally, "autumn"; the time of the ripe fruits of my

prosperity. Applied to youth, as the Orientalists began their year

with autumn, the most temperate season in the East.

secret--when the intimate friendship of God rested on my tent

(Pr 3:32;

Ps 31:20;

Ge 18:17;

Joh 15:15).

The Hebrew often means a divan for deliberation.

6. butter--rather, "cream," literally, "thick milk." Wherever I

turned my steps, the richest milk and oil flowed in to me abundantly.

Image from pastoral life.

When I washed my steps--Literal washing of the feet in

milk is not meant, as the second clause shows; Margin, "with

me," that is, "near" my path, wherever I walked

(De 32:13).

Olives amidst rocks yield the best oil. Oil in the East is used

for food, light, anointing, and medicine.

7-10. The great influence Job had over young and old, and noblemen.

through . . . street!--rather, When I went out of my house, in the

country (see

Job 1:1,

prologue) to the gate (ascending), up to the city (which was on

elevated ground), and when I prepared my (judicial) seat in the

market place. The market place was the place of judgment, at the

gate or propylæa of the city, such as is found in the remains of

Nineveh and Persepolis

(Isa 59:14;

Ps 55:11; 127:5).

8. hid--not literally; rather, "stepped backwards," reverentially.

The aged, who were already seated, arose and remained standing

(Hebrew) until Job seated himself. Oriental manners.

9.

(Job 4:2;

see on

Job 21:5).

Refrained talking--stopped in the middle of their speech.

10. Margin, "voice--hid," that is, "hushed"

(Eze 3:26).

Tongue cleaved, &c.--that is, awed by my presence, the emirs or

sheiks were silent.

11. blessed--extolled my virtues

(Pr 31:28).

Omit "me" after "heard"; whoever heard of me (in general, not in

the market place,

Job 29:7-10)

praised me.

gave witness--to my honorable character. Image from a court of justice

(Lu 4:22).

the eye--that is, "face to face"; antithesis to

ear--that is, report of me.

12-17. The grounds on which Job was praised

(Job 29:11),

his helping the afflicted

(Ps 72:12)

who cried to him for help, as a judge, or as one possessed of means of

charity. Translate: "The fatherless who had none to help him."

13. So far was I from sending "widows" away empty

(Job 22:9).

ready to perish--

(Pr 31:6).

14.

(Isa 61:10;

1Ch 12:18).

judgment--justice.

diadem--tiara. Rather, "turban," "head-dress." It and the full

flowing outer mantle or "robe," are the prominent characteristics of an

Oriental grandee's or high priest's dress

(Zec 3:5).

So Job's righteousness especially characterized him.

15. Literally, "the blind"

(De 27:18);

"lame"

(2Sa 9:13);

figuratively, also the spiritual support which the more enlightened

gives to those less so

(Job 4:3;

Heb 12:13;

Nu 10:31).

16. So far was I from "breaking the arms of the fatherless," as

Eliphaz asserts

(Job 22:9),

I was a "father" to such.

the cause which I knew not--rather, "of him whom I knew not," the

stranger

(Pr 29:7

[UMBREIT]; contrast

Lu 18:1,

&c.). Applicable to almsgiving

(Ps 41:1);

but here primarily, judicial conscientiousness

(Job 31:13).

17. Image from combating with wild beasts

(Job 4:11;

Ps 3:7).

So compassionate was Job to the oppressed, so terrible to the

oppressor!

jaws--Job broke his power, so that he could do no more hurt, and

tore from him the spoil, which he had torn from others.

18. I said--in my heart

(Ps 30:6).

in--rather, "with my nest"; as the second clause refers to long

life. Instead of my family dying before me, as now, I shall live so

long as to die with them: proverbial for long life. Job did realize his

hope

(Job 42:16).

However, in the bosom of my family, gives a good sense

(Nu 24:21;

Ob 4).

Use "nest" for a secure dwelling.

sand--

(Ge 22:17;

Hab 1:9).

But the Septuagint and Vulgate, and Jewish interpreters,

favor the translation, "the phœnix bird." "Nest" in the parallel

clause supports the reference to a bird. "Sand" for multitude,

applies to men, rather than to years. The myth was, that the

phœnix sprang from a nest of myrrh, made by his father before death,

and that he then came from Arabia (Job's country) to Heliopolis (the

city of the Sun) in Egypt, once in every five hundred years, and there

burnt his father [HERODOTUS, 2:73]. Modern

research has shown that this was the Egyptian mode of representing

hieroglyphically a particular chronological era or cycle. The death and

revival every five hundred years, and the reference to the sun,

implies such a grand cycle commencing afresh from the same point in

relation to the sun from which the previous one started. Job probably

refers to this.

19. Literally, "opened to the waters." Opposed to

Job 18:16.

Vigorous health.

20. My renown, like my bodily health, was continually fresh.

bow--Metaphor from war, for, my strength, which gains me "renown,"

was ever renewed

(Jer 49:35).

21. Job reverts with peculiar pleasure to his former dignity in

assemblies

(Job 29:7-10).

22. not again--did not contradict me.

dropped--affected their minds, as the genial rain does the soil on

which it gently drops

(Am 7:16;

De 32:2;

So 4:11).

23. Image of

Job 29:22

continued. They waited for my salutary counsel, as the dry soil does

for the refreshing rain.

opened . . . mouth--panted for; Oriental image

(Ps 119:131).

The "early rain" is in autumn and onwards, while the seed is being

sown. The "latter rain" is in March, and brings forward the harvest,

which ripens in May or June. Between the early and latter rains, some

rain falls, but not in such quantities as those rains. Between March

and October no rain falls

(De 11:14;

Jas 5:7).

24. When I relaxed from my wonted gravity (a virtue much esteemed in

the East) and smiled, they could hardly credit it; and yet,

notwithstanding my condescension, they did not cast aside reverence for my gravity. But the parallelism is better in

UMBREIT'S translation,

"I smiled kindly on those who trusted not," that is, in times of danger

I cheered those in despondency. And they could not cast down

(flowing from trust in God)

(Pr 16:15;

Ps 104:15).

The opposite phrase

(Ge 4:5, 6).

"Gravity" cannot well be meant by "light of countenance."

25. I chose out their way--that is, I willingly went up to their

assembly (from my country residence,

Job 29:7).

in the army--as a king supreme in the midst of his army.

comforteth the mourners--Here again Job unconsciously foreshadows

Jesus Christ

(Isa 61:2, 3).

Job's afflictions, as those of Jesus Christ, were fitting him for the

office hereafter

(Isa 50:4;

Heb 2:18).