Job 29: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Job goes on speaking, looking back on his life before his troubles came. He remembers God's care over him, his children around him, his great wealth, and the respect he was given when he took his seat at the city gate, where young men hid themselves and leading men fell silent. He recalls rescuing the poor, the fatherless, the dying, and the widow, and taking up the case of a stranger. He tells how he expected to die old in his own home, and how people waited on his advice as farmers wait for rain.

Claim by Claim

1. 29:1
   • Job continued his discourse.
   • Job spoke.
2. 29:2
   • Job wished he were as he was in the months gone by.
   • Job wished he were as in the days when God watched over him.
3. 29:3
   • Job said God's lamp shone above his head in those days.
   • Job said that by God's light he walked through darkness.
4. 29:4
   • Job said he was then in the days of his prime.
   • Job said the intimate counsel of God rested on his tent.
5. 29:5
   • Job said the Almighty was still with him then.
   • Job said his young ones, whether his children or his young servants, were around him.
6. 29:6
   • Job said his steps were washed with curds.
   • Job said the rock poured out for him streams of oil.
7. 29:7
   • Job said he went out to the gate of the city.
   • Job said he took his seat in the open square.
8. 29:8
   • The young men saw Job and hid themselves.
   • The aged men rose and stood up.
9. 29:9
   • The princes stopped speaking.
   • The princes laid a hand on their mouth.
10. 29:10
    • The voice of the nobles was hushed.
    • The tongue of the nobles clung to the roof of their mouth.
11. 29:11
    • When the ear heard Job, it called him blessed.
    • When the eye saw Job, it bore witness in his favor.
12. 29:12
    • Job delivered the poor man who cried out.
    • Job delivered the fatherless.
    • The fatherless had no one to help him.
13. 29:13
    • The blessing of the man who was perishing came upon Job.
    • Job made the widow's heart sing for joy.
14. 29:14
    • Job put on righteousness.
    • Righteousness clothed Job.
    • Job's justice was like a robe and a turban.
15. 29:15
    • Job was eyes to the blind.
    • Job was feet to the lame.
16. 29:16
    • Job was a father to the needy.
    • Job investigated the legal case he did not know.
17. 29:17
    • Job broke the jaws of the unjust man.
    • Job cast the prey out of the teeth of the unjust man.
18. 29:18
    • Job said he would die in his nest.
    • Job said he would multiply his days as the sand.
19. 29:19
    • Job said his root was spread open to the waters.
    • Job said the dew lodged all night on his branch.
20. 29:20
    • Job said his glory was fresh within him.
    • Job said his bow was renewed in his hand.
21. 29:21
    • Men listened to Job.
    • Men waited for Job.
    • Men kept silent for his counsel.
22. 29:22
    • After Job's words men did not speak again.
    • Job's speech dropped upon them.
23. 29:23
    • Men waited for Job as for the rain.
    • Men opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
24. 29:24
    • When Job smiled on them, they did not believe it.
    • They did not cast down the light of Job's face.
25. 29:25
    • Job chose out their way.
    • Job sat as chief.
    • Job dwelt as a king among his troops.
    • Job was as one who comforts mourners.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

29:1

The King James word "parable" here does not mean a short teaching story. It translates the Hebrew *mashal*, a formal, elevated speech in poetry. Chapters 29-31 are Job's last long speech, delivered after his three friends have run out of arguments.

29:3

A lamp burning above the doorway or in the middle of the tent stood for a household that was alive, secure and prospering. To speak of someone's lamp going out was to say his family and fortunes had ended.

29:4

"The days of my youth" in the King James is misleading: the Hebrew word suggests ripeness or harvest-time, a man at the height of his powers, not a boy. "The secret of God" translates *sod*, a word for confidential conversation among close friends or trusted advisers; hence "friendship." A tent, not a house, is the normal dwelling in the world of the book.

29:5

"The Almighty" translates *Shaddai*, an old title for God used far more often in Job than anywhere else in the Bible. Its literal meaning is uncertain; "Almighty" is the traditional guess rather than a certain translation.

29:6

Two pictures of absurd plenty. Curds or cream were a luxury of the herdsman's life, and washing your feet in them means having so much that you waste it. Olive presses were often cut into bare rock, and olive trees grow in rocky ground, so the rock itself seems to pour out oil - the staple used for food, lamps, medicine and washing.

29:7

The gateway of a walled town was its civic center. The gate structure and the open space inside it were where elders sat, contracts were witnessed, disputes were judged and public business was done. "I prepared my seat" means Job took his recognized place among the men who decided such cases - the whole scene that follows is a court in session.

29:8

Standing up when an older or more important man arrived was the standard mark of respect, and the young men withdrawing was not fear but deference, getting out of the way of someone senior.

29:9

Covering the mouth with the hand was a recognized gesture of deference and silence: it signaled that a man had nothing to add and would not interrupt.

29:10

Saying a tongue "cleaved to the roof of their mouth" is a way of saying they could not get a word out. It does not mean anything was wrong with them.

29:11

"Gave witness to me" is courtroom language, continuing the scene at the gate: those who saw Job's conduct testified in his favor. In a society without written records, a man's standing rested on what others would publicly say about him.

29:12

"The fatherless" means a child who has lost his father. Together with widows and resident foreigners, such people had no adult male to press their case at the gate, which is exactly why they appear so often in lists of those who need protecting.

29:13

"Him that was ready to perish" is a person at the point of death or ruin. A blessing spoken by such a person was not a polite thank-you: words of blessing were felt to carry real force and to bring good on the one they were spoken over.

29:14

"Judgment" here means justice - giving people their due in a dispute. The image is of justice worn like clothing. The "diadem" is not a crown in the royal sense but a wound turban, headgear that marked a man's rank and office.

29:16

"The cause which I knew not" means the lawsuit of someone Job had no connection with - a stranger with no family or patron in the town. The point of "I searched out" is that he investigated the facts instead of deciding in favor of the people he knew.

29:17

The wicked man is pictured as a wild animal with prey in its mouth. "Spoil" means what the beast has seized; breaking the jaws is the only way to make it let go.

29:18

"Die in my nest" means to die at home, old and undisturbed, rather than being driven out or cut off. The Hebrew word rendered "sand" can also be read as the name of the legendary phoenix, a bird said to live for centuries and renew itself; ancient interpreters were divided, and both readings give the same basic sense of an immensely long life.

29:19

In a dry land a tree whose roots reach water survives the summer, and the night dew is a real source of moisture in a rainless season. Both details say: constantly supplied, never withering.

29:20

"Glory" here means honor and reputation among other people. A bow left strung loses its spring, so a bow that is always "renewed" - restrung, taut - stands for strength and effectiveness that never slackens.

29:23

In this climate the rains came in two seasons: the early rain in autumn that softened the ground for plowing, and the latter or spring rain that swelled the grain just before harvest. Missing the latter rain meant a ruined crop, so people watched for it with real anxiety. Opening the mouth wide is the gesture of parched ground or a gasping person drinking it in.

29:24

This verse is one of the hardest in the book, and translators disagree. The Hebrew can mean that Job's favor was so far above them that they could scarcely believe he would smile on them, or that his cheerfulness lifted men who had given up hope. "The light of my countenance" - a bright, favorable face - was a standard way of speaking of a superior's goodwill; "they cast it not down" may mean they did nothing to dim it, or that they never let his goodwill fail them.

29:25

"Sat chief" means presided as head of the assembly. The last line comes without warning and its connection to the rest is unclear in the Hebrew: Job's picture of himself as a commanding figure ends, oddly, with the image of a man consoling the bereaved.