22 After I had said what was in my mind, they were quiet and let my words go deep into their hearts;
My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden plants:
Your lips are dropping honey; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your clothing is like the smell of Lebanon.
Son of man, let your face be turned to the south, let your words be dropped to the south, and be a prophet against the woodland of the South;
And no one was able to give him an answer, and so great was their fear of him, that from that day no one put any more questions to him.
Take note O Job, give ear to me; keep quiet, while I say what is in my mind. If you have anything to say, give me an answer; for it is my desire that you may be judged free from sin. If not, give attention to me, and keep quiet, and I will give you wisdom.
Now then, give ear to the word of the Lord: You say, Be no prophet to Israel, and say not a word against the people of Isaac.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 29
Commentary on Job 29 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 29
After that excellent discourse concerning wisdom in the foregoing chapter Job sat down and paused awhile, not because he had talked himself out of breath, but because he would not, without the leave of the company, engross the talk to himself, but would give room for his friends, if they pleased, to make their remarks on what he had said; but they had nothing to say, and therefore, after he had recollected himself a little, he went on with his discourse concerning his own affairs, as recorded in this and the two following chapters, in which,
All this he enlarges upon, to aggravate his present calamities; like Naomi, "I went out full,' but am brought "home again empty.'
Job 29:1-6
Losers may have leave to speak, and there is nothing they speak of more feelingly than of the comforts they are stripped of. Their former prosperity is one of the most pleasing subjects of their thoughts and talk. It was so to Job, who begins here with a wish (v. 2): O that I were as in months past! so he brings in this account of his prosperity. His wish is,
Job 29:7-17
We have here Job in a post of honour and power. Though he had comfort enough in his own house, yet he did not confine himself to that. We are not born for ourselves, but for the public. When any business was to be done in the gate, the place of judgment, Job went out to it through the city (v. 7), not in an affectation of pomp, but in an affection to justice. Observe, Judgment was administered in the gate, in the street, in the places of concourse, to which every man might have a free access, that every one who would might be a witness to all that was said and done, and that when judgment was given against the guilty others might hear and fear. Job being a prince, a judge, a magistrate, a man in authority, among the children of the east, we are here told,
Job 29:18-25
That which crowned Job's prosperity was the pleasing prospect he had of the continuance of it. Though he knew, in general, that he was liable to trouble, and therefore was not secure (ch. 3:26, I was not in safety, neither had I rest), yet he had no particular occasion for fear, but as much reason as ever any man had to count upon the lengthening out of his tranquility.
I know not but we may look upon Job as a type and figure of Christ in his power and prosperity. Our Lord Jesus is such a King as Job was, the poor man's King, who loves righteousness and hates iniquity, and upon whom the blessing of a world ready to perish comes; see Ps. 72:2, etc. To him therefore let us give ear, and let him sit chief in our hearts.