Job 29:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

As I was in the days of my youth— The word חרפי chorpi, signifies the winter, or rather, more precisely, the wet season, such as prevails in the eastern countries. Oh that I were as in months past, says Job, as I was in the days of my winter; in the days of his moist time; that is, when, as he expresses it in the 19th and 20th verses, my root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch, &c. Not as in the days of his disgrace then, the days in which he was stripped of all, as an herb of its leaves and flowers in the winter; but like a plant in the latter part of the rainy season, before the violent heats and droughts come on, which scorch and burn up every thing. See Observations, p. 11. Heath, after Schultens, renders it, The days of my prosperity, my autumnal state; when he was loaded with prosperity, as the trees are with ripe fruit in autumn. The word סוד; sod, (the secret,) in Scripture, signifies two things; either secret counsels, or the assembly where such consultations are held. In the former sense it is used Amos 3:7 in the latter sense it is used more frequently, as in Psalms 89:7. Jeremiah 6:11 and elsewhere. Agreeable to this account then, אלוה סוד, sod eloha, (the secret of the Lord,) and יהוה סוד, sod iehovah, in Scripture, may signify two things, either the counsels and decrees of God's providence (which are secret with respect to us, any further than he is pleased to reveal them), or the assembly where these consultations (speaking after the manner of men) are held: In this sense it is used in the 8th verse of the 15th chapter of this book; where Eliphaz asks Job, Hast thou heard the secret of God? (the Hebrew is אלוה בסוד besod eloha in the secret counsel, or assembly of God;) And dost thou restrain, rather, hast thou drawn wisdom to thyself? i.e. "Hast thou been admitted, as a hearer, in that great assembly where God's consultations are held, and hast thou drawn wisdom to thyself from thence?" Now, if we understand the phrase in the same sense here, we shall not only find the passage very intelligible, but an image rising to our view which is exceedingly sublime: Oh that I were, says Job, as in months past! when the counsel of God was over my tabernacle: i.e. when that august assembly where God's counsels and decrees are passed was held, as it were, over my habitation, and it seemed to be his peculiar care to prosper me and my family! When the Almighty was yet with me, as he goes on, and my children were about me! The LXX and Symmachus both preserve the sense, or come very near it, but do not seem to have equalled the full beauty of the image. See the Reflections.