Job 29:1-25
1 Moreover Job continueda his parable, and said,
2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
3 When his candleb shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
10 The noblesc held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
16 I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
17 And I brake the jawsd of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
20 My glory was freshe in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
22 After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.
23 And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.
25 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.
Job 29:3. When his candle shined upon my head; that is, when the light of his countenance shone upon me, in every form of patriarchal prosperity. This figure seems to be borrowed from the lights in ancient tabernacles; and of course, anterior to the time that Moses illuminated the tabernacle with seven lamps.
Job 29:4. When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle. Rabbi Salom says, the angels, who crowd the sanctuary like a cloud. Psalms 34:7; Isaiah 4:4. There peace and joy shone upon my soul, and judicial honours awaited me in the gate.
Job 29:5. When my children were about me, as hopeful branches of my house. These are often the sweetest days of parental bliss, for heavier cares come with riper years.
Job 29:9. Princes laid their hand on their mouth; that is, elders and magistrates kept silence, to hear the wise and equitable opinion of the bench. A cool and comprehensive mind often suggests a superior idea, to which all men at once accede.
Job 29:16. The cause which I knew not I searched out; for the wicked hide all they can. Many good estates are mortgaged and lost; and when the children cry out of wrong, they are not heard. The Jobs are few among lawyers that will risk any thing to gain back a part to the injured family.
Job 29:18. I shall multiply my days as the sand. Hebrews חול chol, which designates both the sand and the palm. The Latin, partly following the LXX, reads, “I shall multiply my days as the palm,” which like the oak and the cedar, exists for ages, Isaiah has the same idea of longevity in the latter day. “As the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” As sands are counted by number, not by days, this seems to be the true reading. Exodus 15:27.
Job 29:25. Dwelt as a king in the army. Two of Job's three friends have the title of king in the LXX: it was then common to the heads of tribes.
REFLECTIONS.
Job, feeling a hope in God, sighs for restoration, as in the former days. But like David, he sighs first for power to go and worship where the secret of God was upon his tabernacle. Psalms 63:1; Psalms 84:2. The patriarchal affluence, of washing his steps in butter, was the secondary request; for what is life without a God!
While his friends, in this dark and bitter day, were assaying to probe a guilty conscience, that rectitude of Job in having been eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, a husband to the widow, and a father to the orphan, shed a cheering radiance on all his gloom. Though we magnify grace, and grace alone, yet those moral reflections embolden a confidence to which a mind conscious of derelictions in duty cannot have equal claims.
God reigns in heaven to do good to man. Such also was the life of our blessed Saviour; “he went about doing good.” The members of his mystical body should imitate his exemplary virtues. The relative situations of life should inculcate benevolence in every form. The rich have need of the poor, while the aged and the blind have natural claims on the public for bread. Add to this, the Lord has promised to deliver the man who has pity on the poor, in the day of trouble. Yea, the Lord himself will memorialize the cup of cold water in the great day of retribution. Hear this, oh christian, and be steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. In so doing you taste of pleasures pure and divine.