Job 29:24 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

If I laughed on them, &c.— If I was merry with them, they could scarce contain themselves; yet dropped they not their reverence for me. The word rendered they could scarce contain themselves, signifies properly, to stand firm on the legs. The sense is, they could not refrain from bodily expressions of joy. The latter clause is rendered by Mr. Heath paraphrastically. It is literally, and they caused not the light of my countenance to fall. See Houb.