5 When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were around me;
6 When my steps were washed with butter, And the rock poured out streams of oil for me!
7 When I went forth to the city gate, When I prepared my seat in the street,
8 The young men saw me and hid themselves, The aged rose up and stood;
9 The princes refrained from talking, And laid their hand on their mouth;
10 The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me, it commended me:
12 Because I delivered the poor who cried, And the fatherless also, who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
15 I was eyes to the blind, And feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn't know, I searched out.
17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, And plucked the prey out of his teeth.
18 Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.
19 My root is spread out to the waters, The dew lies all night on my branch;
20 My glory is fresh in me, My bow is renewed in my hand.'
21 "Men listened to me, waited, And kept silence for my counsel.
22 After my words they didn't speak again; My speech fell on them.
23 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn't reject the light of my face.
25 I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, As one who comforts the mourners.
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.