Job 29 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

Job's Past Greatness and Happiness

Job mournfully recalls the days of God's favour, and the prosperity and honour he once enjoyed. In this chapter we have the picture of a great and worthy chieftain looked up to and respected by all. It confirms the description of Job's importance in Job 1.

Candle] RV 'lamp'; a figure of God's favour.

Days of my youth] RV 'ripeness of my days.' Secret] RM' friendship.' Tabernacle] RV 'tent.'

A figure of prosperity: cp. Deuteronomy 33:24.

Through the city] RV 'unto the city.' Job went with other elders to administer justice at the city gate. Observe that Job did not live in the city; his usual abode was in his camp. But he was influential in the city, just as a great Arab prince is sometimes in our own times.

Hid themselves] because of the awe which Job inspired.

Gave witness to me] i.e. to my goodness, which it saw.

Lit. 'Justice clothed itself in me.' He was the very personification of justice. Diadem] RM 'turban.'

The cause which I knew not] RV 'the cause of him that I knew not.'

As the sand] RM 'as the phœnix.' This was a fabulous bird alluded to in Egyptian, Hebrew, and Arabian tradition. It was supposed to be immortal, burning itself in its nest every thousand years and renewing its life in the flames.

19, 20. The verbs should be read in the future tense.

By] RV 'to': cp. Psalms 1:3.

Dew] cp. Proverbs 19:12; Deuteronomy 32:2; The dew was an emblem of prosperity in a land where rain was infrequent.

20a. The respect paid him would not fail him.

20b. His physical powers should endure: cp. Genesis 49:24, 'His bow abode in strength.'

21-25. These vv. would more naturally follow Genesis 49:10, and some think this was their original position.

Dropped upon them] as refreshing rain: cp. Deuteronomy 32:2.

The latter rain] the spring rains as contrasted with those of the autumn.

If I laughed, etc.] RM 'I smiled on them when they had no confidence,' i.e. to encourage them.

24b. They failed to remove his cheerfulness.

Job speaks as if he used to be the natural guide and comfort of his fellow-men.

The Third Series of Speeches (Job 22-31)

Having failed to convince Job by the argument derived from God's greatness and wisdom, and to make good their assertion that it fared ill with the wicked, the friends have only one new line of argument left. This is a downright accusation of Job as a high-handed tyrant. Eliphaz adopts this, though he softens its severity by a fervent exhortation to Job, and a description of the felicity that awaits him if he will but make peace with God. The rest of the debate on his side is difficult to appreciate, owing to the uncertainty attaching to the distribution of the speeches. According to the present arrangement Bildad utters only a few sentences reasserting the greatness of God, and the impossibility that man should be pure in His sight. Zophar does not come forward at all. Several scholars infer from this that the poet means to suggest that the friends have exhausted their case. But since in other instances Bildad and Zophar substantially repeat what Eliphaz has said, the poet could very well have made them follow on the same lines here. Moreover, the symmetry is spoiled if Zophar does not speak. Since we have in Job 27:13-23 a description of the fate of the wicked exactly repeating the sentiments of the friends, it is a probable conjecture that this is part of Zophar's missing speech. In that case, however, there is plausibility in the view that Bildad's speech was originally longer than the few verses at present assigned to him. Several attempts at reconstruction have been made, the most recent (that in the Century Bible) assigns Job 25:2-3; Job 26:5-14 to Bildad, Job 26:2-4; Job 27:2-6; Job 11:12 to Job, Job 27:13-23 (with possibly Job 27:7-10) to Zophar. Job 25:4-6 is regarded as a gloss based on Job 15:14-16, and it is supposed that the greater part of Job's reply to Bildad, which stood between Job 27:11 and Job 27:12, has been struck out on account of its boldness. If this or a similar view is correct, Bildad repeats the theme of the friends in the first cycle of debate, Zophar that in the second.

These Chapter s form a section by themselves, in which Job reviews his life. He first of all draws a picture of his past prosperous career, when he was happy and respected (Job 29). With this he contrasts his present condition, when men he once despised now hold him in contempt, and he is in pain and sorrow and disgrace (Job 30). Finally, he reasserts his innocence of wickedness in any form (Job 31).