Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Job · About this commentary
Job: Oh That I Were as in Months Past
Job 29:1-25
1 Job again took up his parable, and said, · WEB
Job's memory of his old life is not of his wealth but of his usefulness, and the friendship of God is the first thing he names.
The whole chapter is one long oh that, and what he misses is not what a reader might expect.
The first item is not property. It is presence: the days when God watched over me; when his lamp shone on my head, and the friendship of God was in my tent Job 29:2–4. Then his children around him Job 29:5. The wealth appears third, and as a figure — steps washed with butter, the rock pouring out oil Job 29:6.
The order is the man. What he grieves first is intimacy with God, which he has lost without knowing why, and the extravagant images of prosperity are almost thrown in.
The scene at the city gate is where public business was done, and Job's account of his standing there is unembarrassed. Young men hid, the aged stood, princes stopped talking, the voice of the nobles was hushed Job 29:8–10.
That could be read as vanity, and the next verse forbids it. The reason he was honored is given at once: because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him Job 29:12.
What follows is the most complete self-description in the book, and every item is an action on behalf of somebody without power. The blessing of the man ready to perish; the widow's heart made to sing; eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame; a father to the needy Job 29:13–16.
One of them is not a kindness but a discipline of mind: I researched the cause of him whom I didn't know Job 29:16. He investigated the cases of strangers — people with no claim on him and no way of repaying — rather than deciding them on the reputation of the parties. That is precisely what his friends have failed to do for him.
And one is violent: I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth Job 29:17. The image is of an animal with something in its mouth. His justice was not only charitable; it took things back from people who had them.
This is the answer to Eliphaz's invented charges Job 22:6–9, and Job gives it as reminiscence rather than as defense. He is not arguing here. He is remembering.
What he expected then is recorded without comment: I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand, with his root spread to the waters and the dew on his branch all night Job 29:18–19. A long life, a good death at home, and freshness to the end.
The last line of the chapter is the one that hurts most in retrospect. He lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners Job 29:25. The man who was known for comforting mourners is now the one sitting in ashes with three failed comforters in front of him.
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