Ver. 3. When his candle shined upon my head.] The candle or lamp is probably an allusion to the lamps which hung from the ceiling of the banqueting rooms of the wealthy Arabs. The latter clause, “by his light I walked, &c.” refers to the Eastern practice of guiding caravans at night by torches, carried aloft before each division of the travellers. Scott.

— a diadem.] The usual headdress of the Turks, Persians, Arabs, and other Eastern nations to this day, is the turban, which consists of a cap, and a sash of fine linen or silk wound round the bottom of the cap; and which appears from the present passage to have been worn in the East as early as the time of Job. In Isai. lxii. 3, it is used for the royal turban; and in Zech. iii. 5, for the high priest’s. Parkhurst. This beautiful manner of speaking is still preserved among the Arabs. One of their proverbs is, “Knowledge is a diadem to a young person, and a chain of gold about his neck.” Scott.

Ver. 1.—younger] The vast respect paid to their elders by the Eastern people, quickened their sensibility of contempt from their juniors. Scott.

—whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.] Whose fathers I would have disdained to make the keepers of those dogs which tended upon my flocks. Bp. Hall.

—and juniper roots for their meat.] Rather, the Genista or Spanish broom. I cannot find any modern instance of the root of this shrub being eaten for food; but it is certain that the shoots, leaves, bark, and roots of other shrubs and trees, have been eaten among many nations in times and places of famine and scarcity. Parkhurst.

under the nettles they were gathered together.] The nettle is a plant so low, that no persons could assemble under it: the Latin Vulgate always renders the word brier, bramble, or the like: and Scheuchzer says, We must absolutely have recourse to tall shrubs, which are thorny, prickly, and burning. Dr. Shaw says, “There is no great variety of plants to be met with in these deserts. Those which I have seen are generally indebted to the cleft of some barren rock, or to the sandy plain, for their support, and to the nightly dews for their nourishment.” Script. illustr. Expos. Ind.

For what portion of God &c.] For if I had suffered my eyes and my heart to rove after these unlawful lusts, what could I have looked up for at the hand of God but due vengeance? Bp. Hall.

Job 29:2

2. Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me.] For what use could I make of them, who had wholly lost their time, and lived idly and unprofitably? Bp. Hall.

Job 29:3

3. For want and famine they were solitary;] Though they were in want, and ready to perish with hunger, yet no man could look after them, or pay them any regard. Caryl.

—fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.] These words would be clearer, if they were rendered thus: Fleeing lately into the wilderness which is desolate and waste; or, into the wilderness, unto desolation and destruction. Dr. Dwell.

Job 29:4

4. — when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;] When there was a secret blessing of God upon me and my family, protecting, directing, and prospering us in all our affairs; whereas now there is a visible curse of God on me and mine. Poole.

5. Who cut up mallows by the bushes.] The word, here translated “mallow,” seems to signify a herb of a saltish taste, which grows in salt places, whether near the sea, or in the desert. Athenæus says, it is the food of the miserable. Script. illustr. Expos. Ind. The plant is described by Job as “cropped upon the shrub;” which exactly agrees with what the Arab writers say of the Maluck or Halimus, namely, that they ate the tops of it. Parkhurst.

Job 29:5

5. They were driven forth from among men.] This verse discovers the true cause why the men before spoken of lived solitary in the wilderness; their retirement was not voluntary but compulsory. Caryl.

They were cast out of all civil society, as pests not to be endured: and whenever they were discovered lurking about towns, an outcry was raised against them as against the pilfering Arabs of the desert; with whom, it is likely, they herded. Scott.

Job 29:6

6. When I washed my steps with butter.] When I abounded in all sorts of blessings, which is often signified by this and the like phrases; as Gen. xlix. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 24; Job xx. 17; Ps. lxxxi. 16. When I had such numerous herds of cattle, and consequently such plenty of butter, that, if I pleased, I might have washed my feet with it. Poole. — and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;] Cattle and olive groves made the principal wealth of the Arabs. The best olives grow upon rocky mountains. Hence these bold figures to express uncommon felicity. Scott.

7. To dwell—in caves of the earth, &c.] St. Jerome says, that the southern parts of Judea are full of caves under ground, and of caverns in the mountains, to which the people retired in time of danger. Compare Judg. vi. 2; 1 Sam. xiii. 6. Parkhurst.

The following passage, in which notice is taken of the like circumstances in these deserts, is not inapplicable: “If in the course of our travelling we did not fall in with the hovels of the Kabyles, or the encampments of the Arabs, we had nothing to protect us from the inclemency either of the heat of the day, or the cold of the night, unless we met with some accidental grove of trees, the shelve of a rock, or sometimes by good fortune a grotto. At these times our horses were the greatest sufferers: and as they were always our first care, we gathered for them stubble, grass, boughs of trees, and such like provender, before we sat down and examined what fragments of some former meal were reserved for ourselves.” Dr. Shaw.

The rocks of Arabia Petrea abound in caves. At this day, the Arabs who dwell in the mountains of that country are a bad people; the worst of all the Arabs, as Bishop Pococka informs us. Scott.

Job 29:7

7. When I went &c.] Having described his domestick happiness, he proceeds to represent the honours paid him in publick life. This representation is judiciously intermingled with an account of his impartial and intrapid administration of justice; which is a noble answer to the accusation of Eliphaz, chap. xxii. 6—9. Scott. — the gate] The court of justice, where was the meeting of the elders to try causes. Bp. Stock. See the notes on Gen. xxiii. 10, and on chap. v. 4. — when I prepared my seat in the street!] When I sat on the bench in the open place where the people are wont to have their causes heard. Bp. Patrick. Sitting on a cushion is an expression of honour in the East: and the preparing of a seat for a person of distinction seems to mean, laying things of this kind on a place where such an one is to sit. When Job speaks of “his preparing his seat,” it is extremely natural to understand him of his sending his servants to lay a cushion and a carpet on one of the publick seats, or something of that sort, as Sir John Chardin supposes. Harmer.

8. Among the bushes they brayed;] Made a noise like Before CHRIST about 1520. Job’s prosperity is turned into calamity. Before CHRIST about 1320. of no name. a Ps. 33. 15. & 69. 12. withhold not spittle from my face. under the nettles they were gathered together.

Job 29:8

8. — hid themselves:] Being struck with such reverence of Job’s person, that they durst not appear openly before him. Caryl. The slavish homage of prostration to princes and great men, which prevailed in Egypt, Persia, and the East in general, and still subsists there, was unknown in Arabia at that time. Though Job was “the greatest of all the men of the East,” we do not find any such adoration paid to him by his contemporaries in the zenith of his prosperity, among the marks of respect here so minutely described. “When the young men saw him, they hid themselves,” in token of reverence; “the aged arose, and stood up” in his presence: “the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand upon their mouth; the nobles held their peace,” and were all attention while he spoke. All this was highly respectful indeed, but still it was manly, and shewed no cringing or servile adulation. And so Sir William Jones describes the genuine Arabs at the present day as a majestick race, who were never conquered, and who have retained their primitive manners, features, and character, with scarcely any alteration. Peters, Dr. Hales.

Job 29:11

11. — it gave witness to me:] They who saw me bore testimony to my uprightness and the integrity of my heart. Chappelow.

12. — loosed my cord,] This seems to be an allusion to the “stretched cords,” by which Job’s tent was fixed to the ground. Dr. Durell. Because God hath bereaved me of that power and honour which I formerly enjoyed, therefore they let loose the reins of their obedience and respect to me. Bp. Hall. Perhaps, “Because He (God) hath loosened my bowstring,” that is, hath made me weak and helpless, in opposition to what he had said by a like image, (chap. xxix. 20,) “and afflicted me, therefore they,” my rascally persecutors before described, “have let go the rein,” that is, thrown off all restraint, “before me.” Parkhurst. Or, the phrase “He hath loosed my cord,” seems equivalent to that in chap. xii. 18, “He looseth the bond of kings.” Scott.

Job 29:13

13. — ready to perish] Through false accusations, whereby his estate or life was in danger. I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy, on account of her great and unexpected deliverance. Clark.

14. — they have no helper ] Rather, there is no helper among them, none ready to assist me. Dr. Durell. 14. They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters:] Rather, They came as a wide torrent: they rolled themselves in order to destroy. Dr. Durell.

Job 29:14

14. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: &c.] In all his proceedings, as a magistrate, or a man in authority, Job sought to do justice to all. Caryl. Where silence against foul and false imputations may be interpreted a confession, there the protestation of a man’s own innocency is ever just, and sometimes necessary. When others do us open wrong, it is not vanity, but charity, to do ourselves open right: and whatsoever appearance of folly or vain boasting there is in so doing, they are chargeable with all that compel us thereunto, and not we. “I am become a fool in glorying,” saith St. Paul, “ye have compelled me,” 2 Cor. xli. 11. It was neither pride nor passion in Job, but such a compulsion as this, that made him so often in this book proclaim his own righteousness. See chap. xxii. 6, and the note there. Bp. Sanderson. — it clothed me: &c.] This metaphor of clothing is much used in the Scriptures in this notion, as applied Job calleth to mind the worthy use he had made of his former prosperity. Before CHRIST about 1800. few-teeth, or, the grinders. spread.

Job 29:15

15. — they pursue my soul as the wind:] With rapidity and violence, as when a person is attacked by a storm. Rosenmüller.

Job 29:16

16. — my soul is poured out upon me:] Job’s soul was once a cistern full of strength, liveliness, joy, and comfort; but his long sufferings and afflictions had almost emptied and drawn him dry to the bottom. Caryl.

Job 29:17

17. My bones are pierced in me] My substance is bored or corroded from off me, eaten into holes with sores. Michaelis observes, that in the elephantiasis, Job’s distemper, “in process of time tumours are formed, and these tumours degenerate at length into incurable sores, which penetrate one after another.” Parkhurst. It is too common a spectacle to see even among Europeans, at Rio de Janeiro, as well as native whites and negroes, that dreadful disease, the elephantiasis, which, destroying the sound texture of the integuments of the human frame, swells, distorts, and discolours wherever it attacks; enlarging the patient’s mis-shapen limbs to the bulk of those of the huge animal, the resemblance to whom, in that particular, occasioned the appellation which this horrid disorder has received. Sir G. Stauton’s Embassy to China. 18. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: &c.] The passage may be rendered, “with great force He layeth hold of my garment, and enfolds me by the collar of my robe. He hath cast me into the mire, &c.” The idea is taken from a man struggling with another, laying hold of his garment, casting him to the earth, and rolling him in the mire. Job compares the disease and affliction which laid hold of him to such a struggle. Houbigant. Or, it requires great force, when I would shift my clothes, to pull them off: my outward garment, by the filthy matter of my sores, being glued as fast to me, as the collar of my shirt. Bp. Patrick.

Job 29:18

18. Then I said, I shall die in my nest, &c.] Then did I please myself in the confidence of my continuing happiness; and durst boldly resolve, I shall die in peace and fullness of days in my own house. Bp. Hall. The image is taken from the eagle, who builds his nest on the summit of a rock. Security and ease are the points of resemblance intended. Scott.

Job 29:19

19. — the dew lay all night upon my branch.] It is well known that in the hot Eastern countries, where it rarely rains during the summer months, the copious dewa, which fall there during the night, contribute greatly to the nourishment of vegetables in general. And “this dew,” says Hasselquist, speaking of the excessively hot weather in Egypt, “is particularly servicoable to the trees, which would otherwise never be and my bow was † renewed in my hand.

Job 29:20

20. — I stand up,] I offer myself to Thy view as an object of compassion, and pray to Thee. Clark. Standing was the usual posture of prayer among the Hebrews. Scott.

Job 29:21

21. Thou art become cruel to me:] It is remarkable, that the very same word is used, Jer. xxx. 14, where God Himself declares how He had dealt with His own people, and expresses it in the following terms: “I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one.” Peters. — with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.] The turn of the sentence in the original is somewhat different, and is literally thus, “With Thy strong hand Thou hatest me;” which gives us a plain direc- Job maketh a solemn protestation Before CHRIST about 1890. mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. # CHAP. XXXI. Job maketh a solemn protestation of his integrity in several duties. I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

Job 29:26

26. — my bow was renewed in my hand.] A bow always bent is an image employed to represent unabated power and strength. Rosenmiller.

Job 29:27

27. — my speech dropped upon them.] Like rain, refreshing them. Fragments to Calmet.

Job 29:28

28. — as for the rain; — the latter rain.] In the foregoing verse, the soft insinuating force of his political and religious instruction was compared to the dropping dew. Here the copiousness of his eloquence is likened to the abundant rains which fall in autumn in those countries; and the high acceptableness of it, to the avidity with which the earth, burnt up by the summer’s drought, devours those rains. The alteration which they produce in the withered fields is so astonishingly great, that Dr. Russel scruples not to call it “a resurrection of vegetable nature.” The same ingenious author informs us, that the first autumnal rains fall about the middle of September; the second, or latter, about twenty or thirty days after. The first are inconsiderable, the latter fall in great abundance. Scott. Concerning what are usually called the former and the latter rains, see the notes on Deut. xi. 14; xxviii. 12.

Job 29:29

29. If I laughed on them, &c.] Or sported and jested with them, that is, carried myself familiarly and pleasantly with them, it was so acceptable to them to see me well pleased with them, that they could scarce believe their senses. Yet my familiarity did not breed in them contempt or presumption, so as to grieve me or make my countenance fall, as it does in cases of shame or sorrow, Gen. iv. 5. They were very cautious not to abuse my smiles, or to give me any occasion to change my countenance or carriage towards them. Poole.

Job 29:30

30. I chose out their way, &c.] The phrase of “choosing out their way,” denotes supremacy both in the state and in the affairs of religion, Exod. xviii. 20. The next sentence represents him encamped with his subjects on some military expedition, with the authority of a royal general: “I shall pitch my tent as a king in the army.” The last clause, “as one that comforteth the mourners,” may mean, animating his troops when they were dispirited: or, in a larger and more noble sense, his being the father of his people, ever touched with their distresses, and ready to exert his utmost ability for their relief. Scott. Whilst Job was in prosperity, he was respected by all; but as soon as he fell into adversity, every one forsook him. Thus it happens every day: men make Before CHRIST about 1800. His honour is turned into extreme contempt. Before CHRIST about 1520.

chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

CHAP. XXX.