Job 29:1 ¶ Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 29:2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
Job 29:3 When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
Job 29:4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
Job 29:5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
Job 29:6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil.
In this chapter Job reflects on his life before calamity struck. He wishes he could go back to that life, the days when God had a hedge of protection around him. In those days he had walked in the light of God’s leading. He longs for the days when he enjoyed an intimate relationship with God and his house was blessed, a time when he was surrounded by his children and enjoyed God’s bountiful provision.
Job 29:7 ¶ When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
Job 29:8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
Job longs for the days when he was a respected leader in the city and sat in counsel to others. Both young and old showed him respect.
Job 29:9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 29:10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
I think these verses are saying that even those in government leadership deferred to his counsel. It seems that he was recognized as the wisest man in the city.
Job 29:11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
Job 29:12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Job remembers that the people were pleased with his counsel and showed their approval publicly. He was respected because he gave help to the poor and the orphans, those that had no one to help them. He offered help to those that were dying and provided for the widows, bringing joy to their hearts. He testifies that he was a very generous man that seemed to follow after God’s own heart.
Admonitions to help those in need abound in scripture.
Deuteronomy 15:7–8 “If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.”
Psalms 82:3 “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.”
1 John 3:17 “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”
James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Job 29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
Job 29:16 I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
Job 29:17 And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
Job describes himself as having been clothed in righteousness and adorned with justice. He had helped the blind and the lame. He provided for the poor as a father. He made the effort to get to the root of the problem when helping others. He had intervened when he saw the wicked mistreat the helpless.
I don’t think Job is boasting as he talks about his past; I think he is giving evidence of his character. Up to this point, he had maintained his innocence but offered no testimony on his own behalf. It’s obvious to me from this account that his suffering probably directly impacted the lives of many others who now had no “Job” to come to the rescue.
Note that Job’s testimony directly refutes the accusations Eliphaz made against him (chapter 22).
Oh that we had many more like Job among the wealthy today. I believe that if we did, hunger and poverty could be eradicated.
Job 29:18 ¶ Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Job 29:19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
Job 29:20 My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
In those days Job had expected to live a long life and die in peace at home. He had enjoyed prosperity, good health and honor. The last part of verse 20 seems to indicate that he was also an able fighter.
This brought to mind the words of the psalmist: Psalms 1:1–3 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Job 29:21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
Job 29:22 After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.
Job 29:23 And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
Job 29:24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.
Job 29:25 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.
Job again longs for the days when his word was sought out, respected and accepted as wisdom. The people liked to please him. They exalted him and treated him like royalty.
Job was known for being one who brought comfort to those in mourning. Can’t you hear the words unsaid—“Certainly not like you!”
Job 30:1 ¶ But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
Job begins to draw a contrast between the past and the present. He, who was a man highly respected, was now a man mocked by those much younger than he, by those whose fathers would not have qualified as fitting to help his dogs watch his flocks.
Job 30:2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
Job 30:3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
Job 30:4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
Job 30:5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)
Job 30:6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
Job 30:7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
Job 30:8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
Job 30:9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
These verses seem to be a description of the people in the lowest level of society, people who used to benefit from Job’s compassion, people who have now turned on him and mock him.
Job 30:10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
Job 30:11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.
Job 30:12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
Job 30:13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
Job 30:14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
Job describes the shameful treatment he endures from these people; they even spit in his face. Chuck Smith offers this insight: “Spitting, of course, is an insult in the Orient. It’s an insult any place to spit in a guy’s face, I suppose. But in the Orient it is a sign of great disdain.”
Job 30:15 ¶ Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
Job 30:16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
Job 30:17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.
Job 30:18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
Job 30:19 He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
In these verses Job talks about how his trouble has overwhelmed him, body and soul. He has lost both honor and wealth. He feels as if he is slowly dying, suffering continual pain. Even his clothes cause pain as he sits in the dust and ashes.
Clarke had a different take on verse 18 that made sense to me: “There seem to be here plain allusions to the effect of his cruel disease; the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine hide, formed by innumerable incrustations from the ulcerated surface. There is now a new kind of covering to my body, formed by the effects of this disease; and it is not a garment which I can cast off; it is as closely attached to me as the collar of my coat.”
I liked Gill’s comment on verse 15: “Terrors are turned upon me,.... Not the terrors of a guilty conscience, for Job had a clear one, and held fast his integrity; nor the terrors of a cursing and condemning law, for he knew he was justified by his living Redeemer, and his sins forgiven for his sake; nor the terrors of death, for that he had made familiar to him, and greatly desired it; nor the terrors of a future judgment, for there was nothing he was more solicitous for than to appear before the judgment seat of God, and take his trial there; but the afflictions that were upon him from the hand of God that was turned on him, who now hid his face from him, and withheld the influences of his grace and layout, and appeared as an enemy, and as a cruel one to him; the reason of all which he knew not, and this threw him into consternation of mind, and filled him with terror.”
Job 30:20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.
Job 30:21 Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.
Job 30:22 Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.
Job 30:23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
Job feels like God is not listening to him as he cries out to him. His greatest pain comes from the thought that God has turned against him for some reason. He knows that God is sovereign and in control of his life, and he assumes that he will soon die.
Job 30:24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
Job looks at death as a release from his suffering, a time when he will be released from God’s judgment.
Again, one can’t help but wonder how much Job knew about life after death and how he learned it. It is true that death is a release from suffering—but only for those who have placed their faith in the Savior. In Job’s time, that faith was placed in the one true God and held in trust until the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Old Testament saints were saved by grace through faith in God’s provision for them just as surely as are we. Those who die without having placed their trust in the Savior can only expect worse suffering after death.
Job 30:25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Job 30:26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
Job 30:27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.
Job 30:28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
Job 30:29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
Job 30:30 My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
Job 30:31 My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
Job still can’t rectify God’s response to him with his beliefs about God. He knows that God would not turn away from one crying out to Him for help. He makes the comparison to how he himself had responded to such cries for help from others in the past. Yet, in spite of all his cries for help, Job suffered ever more evil and darkness. It seems that his disease is causing his skin to turn black as well as fever. The only music that resonates with him is that of mourning and weeping.