Job 29:21-23 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Unto me men gave ear When I spake all men gave me the greatest attention, and my word was a law to them; and waited and kept silence, &c. Expecting till I spake, and silently listening to my counsel, which they were confident would be wise, and just, and good, and preferring it to their own judgment. After my words they spake not again Either to confute them as false, or to add any thing to them as being lame and imperfect. And my speech dropped upon them Hebrew, תשׂ Š, tittop, distilled as the dew, as Ab. Ezra renders it, referring to Deuteronomy 32:2, where Moses, writing in the same style, says, My doctrine shall drop as the rain, &c. As rain is most acceptable and beneficial to the earth, not when it comes down in great and violent storms, but when it descends in moderate and gentle showers; so my words sweetly distilled upon them, and sunk into their hearts. And they waited for me as for the rain They expected my opinion and advice, with silent attention, and with the same eager desire wherewith the husbandman expects the showers after he has sown his seed. And they opened their mouth wide They gaped, as it were, with desire for my words, as the dry and parched earth thirsts and opens its mouth to receive the rain after a long, droughty season. Among the Egyptians, the heavens pouring down rain or dew, was the hieroglyphic, or emblem, of learning and instruction.