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75 lines
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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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Title = 'The Book of Job';
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<p id="Chapter29" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 29
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<p id="Job29_1"><a onclick="return mV('Job',29,'1-25');">Job 29:1-25</a>.
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<p><b>1.</b> Job pauses for a reply. None being made, he proceeds to illustrate the mysteriousness of God's dealings, as set forth (<a onclick="return mV('Job',28,'1-28');">Job 28:1-28</a>) by his own case.
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<p id="Job29_2"><b>2. preserved me</b>—from calamity.
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<p id="Job29_3"><b>3. candle</b>—when His favor shone on me (see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Job/Job018.html#Job18_6">Job 18:6</a> and JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Psa/Psa018.html#Ps18_28">Ps 18:28</a>).
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<br><br><b>darkness</b>—By His safeguard I passed secure through <i>dangers.</i> Perhaps alluding to the lights carried before caravans in nightly travels through deserts [NOYES].
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<p id="Job29_4"><b>4. youth</b>—literally, "autumn"; the time of the ripe fruits of my prosperity. Applied to <i>youth,</i> as the Orientalists <i>began</i> their year with autumn, the most temperate season in the East.
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<br><br><b>secret</b>—when the intimate friendship of God rested on my tent (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',3,32);">Pro 3:32</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',31,20);">Psa 31:20</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Gen',18,17);">Gen 18:17</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jhn',15,15);">Jhn 15:15</a>). The <i>Hebrew</i> often means a <i>divan for deliberation.</i>
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<p id="Job29_6"><b>6. butter</b>—rather, "cream," literally, "thick milk." Wherever I turned my steps, the richest milk and oil flowed in to me abundantly. Image from pastoral life.
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<br><br><b>When I washed my steps</b>—Literal <i>washing of the feet in milk</i> is not meant, as the second clause shows; <i>Margin,</i> "with me," that is, "near" my path, wherever I walked (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',32,13);">Deu 32:13</a>). Olives amidst <i>rocks</i> yield the best oil. Oil in the East is used for food, light, anointing, and medicine.
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<p id="Job29_7"><b>7-10.</b> The great influence Job had over young and old, and noblemen.
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<br><br><b>through...street!</b>—rather, When I went out of my house, in the country (see <a onclick="return mV('Job',1,1);">Job 1:1</a>, prologue) to the gate (ascending), <i>up</i> to the city (which was on elevated ground), and when I prepared my (judicial) seat in <i>the market place.</i> The market place was the place of judgment, at the gate or propylaea of the city, such as is found in the remains of Nineveh and Persepolis (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',59,14);">Isa 59:14</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',55,11);">Psa 55:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',127,5);">127:5</a>).
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<p id="Job29_8"><b>8. hid</b>—not literally; rather, "stepped backwards," reverentially. <i>The aged,</i> who were already seated, <i>arose and remained standing</i> (<i>Hebrew</i>) until Job seated himself. Oriental manners.
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<p id="Job29_9"><b>9.</b> (<a onclick="return mV('Job',4,2);">Job 4:2</a>; see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Job/Job021.html#">Job 21:5</a>).
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<br><br><b>Refrained talking</b>—stopped in the middle of their speech.
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<p id="Job29_10"><b>10.</b> <i>Margin,</i> "voice—hid," that is, "hushed" (<a onclick="return mV('Eze',3,26);">Eze 3:26</a>).
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<br><br><b>Tongue cleaved,</b> etc.—that is, awed by my presence, the emirs or sheiks were silent.
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<p id="Job29_11"><b>11. blessed</b>—extolled my virtues (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',31,28);">Pro 31:28</a>). Omit "me" after "heard"; whoever <i>heard of</i> me (in general, not in the market place, <a onclick="return mV('Job',29,'7-10');">Job 29:7-10</a>) praised me.
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<br><br><b>gave witness</b>—to my honorable character. Image from a court of justice (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',4,22);">Luk 4:22</a>).
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<br><br><b>the eye</b>—that is, "face to face"; antithesis to
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<br><br><b>ear</b>—that is, report of me.
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<p id="Job29_12"><b>12-17.</b> The grounds on which Job was praised (<a onclick="return mV('Job',29,11);">Job 29:11</a>), his helping the afflicted (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',72,12);">Psa 72:12</a>) 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."
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<p id="Job29_13"><b>13.</b> So far was I from sending "widows" away empty (<a onclick="return mV('Job',22,9);">Job 22:9</a>).
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<br><br><b>ready to perish</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',31,6);">Pro 31:6</a>).
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<p id="Job29_14"><b>14.</b> (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',61,10);">Isa 61:10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ch',12,18);">1Ch 12:18</a>).
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<br><br><b>judgment</b>—justice.
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<br><br><b>diadem</b>—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 (<a onclick="return mV('Zec',3,5);">Zec 3:5</a>). So Job's righteousness especially characterized him.
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<p id="Job29_15"><b>15.</b> Literally, "the blind" (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',27,18);">Deu 27:18</a>); "lame" (<a onclick="return mV('2Sa',9,13);">2Sa 9:13</a>); figuratively, also the spiritual support which the more enlightened gives to those less so (<a onclick="return mV('Job',4,3);">Job 4:3</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hbr',12,13);">Hbr 12:13</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Num',10,31);">Num 10:31</a>).
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<p id="Job29_16"><b>16.</b> So far was I from "breaking the arms of the <i>fatherless,</i>" as Eliphaz asserts (<a onclick="return mV('Job',22,9);">Job 22:9</a>), I was a "father" to such.
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<br><br><b>the cause which I knew not</b>—rather, "of him whom I knew not," the stranger (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',29,7);">Pro 29:7</a> [UMBREIT]; contrast <a onclick="return mV('Luk',18,1);">Luk 18:1</a>, etc.). Applicable to almsgiving (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',41,1);">Psa 41:1</a>); but here primarily, judicial conscientiousness (<a onclick="return mV('Job',31,13);">Job 31:13</a>).
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<p id="Job29_17"><b>17.</b> Image from combating with wild beasts (<a onclick="return mV('Job',4,11);">Job 4:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',3,7);">Psa 3:7</a>). So compassionate was Job to the oppressed, so terrible to the oppressor!
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<br><br><b>jaws</b>—Job broke <i>his power,</i> so that he could do no more hurt, and tore from him the spoil, which he had torn from others.
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<p id="Job29_18"><b>18. I said</b>—in my heart (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',30,6);">Psa 30:6</a>).
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<br><br><b>in</b>—rather, "<i>with</i> 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Job',42,16);">Job 42:16</a>). However, <i>in</i> the bosom of my family, gives a good sense (<a onclick="return mV('Num',24,21);">Num 24:21</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Oba',1,4);">Oba 1:4</a>). Use "nest" for a <i>secure dwelling.</i>
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<br><br><b>sand</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',22,17);">Gen 22:17</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,9);">Hab 1:9</a>). But the <i>Septuagint</i> and <i>Vulgate,</i> and Jewish interpreters, favor the translation, "the phoenix bird." "Nest" in the parallel clause supports the reference to a bird. "Sand" for <i>multitude,</i> applies to men, rather than to <i>years.</i> The myth was, that the phoenix 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 <i>the sun,</i> 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.
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<p id="Job29_19"><b>19.</b> Literally, "opened to the waters." Opposed to <a onclick="return mV('Job',18,16);">Job 18:16</a>. Vigorous health.
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<p id="Job29_20"><b>20.</b> My renown, like my bodily health, was continually fresh.
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<br><br><b>bow</b>—Metaphor from war, for, <i>my strength,</i> which gains me "renown," was ever renewed (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',49,35);">Jer 49:35</a>).
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<p id="Job29_21"><b>21.</b> Job reverts with peculiar pleasure to his former dignity in assemblies (<a onclick="return mV('Job',29,'7-10');">Job 29:7-10</a>).
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<p id="Job29_22"><b>22. not again</b>—did not contradict me.
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<br><br><b>dropped</b>—affected their minds, as the genial rain does the soil on which it gently drops (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',7,16);">Amo 7:16</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Deu',32,2);">Deu 32:2</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Sgs',4,11);">Sgs 4:11</a>).
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<p id="Job29_23"><b>23.</b> Image of <a onclick="return mV('Job',29,22);">Job 29:22</a> continued. They waited for my salutary counsel, as the dry soil does for the refreshing rain.
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<br><br><b>opened...mouth</b>—<i>panted for;</i> Oriental image (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',119,131);">Psa 119:131</a>). 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',11,14);">Deu 11:14</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jam',5,7);">Jam 5:7</a>).
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<p id="Job29_24"><b>24.</b> 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, <i>they did not cast aside reverence</i> for <i>my gravity.</i> 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 (by their despondency) my <i>serenity of countenance</i> (flowing from trust in God) (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',16,15);">Pro 16:15</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',104,15);">Psa 104:15</a>). The opposite phrase (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',4,5,6);">Gen 4:5-6</a>). "Gravity" cannot well be meant by "light of countenance."
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<p id="Job29_25"><b>25. I chose out their way</b>—that is, I willingly went up to their assembly (from my country residence, <a onclick="return mV('Job',29,7);">Job 29:7</a>).
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<br><br><b>in the army</b>—as a king supreme in the midst of his army.
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<br><br><b>comforteth the mourners</b>—Here again Job unconsciously foreshadows Jesus Christ (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',61,2,3);">Isa 61:2-3</a>). Job's afflictions, as those of Jesus Christ, were fitting him for the office hereafter (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',50,4);">Isa 50:4</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hbr',2,18);">Hbr 2:18</a>).
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