Five-year Bible reading plan for 13 February 2020

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Job, Chapter 29

¹ Job bemoaneth himself of his former prosperity and honour

¹Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

²Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

³When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

⁶When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

⁷When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

⁸The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

⁹The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

¹²Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

¹⁷And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

²⁰My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

²¹Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

²²After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

²³And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

²⁴If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

Read more:Job, Chapter 30

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29 Job, after pausing a little while, shews, what comfort he formerly had in his house and family, Job 29:1-6.
What honour and power he had in his country, Job 29:7-10.
What good he did as a magistrate, Job 29:11-17.
And what a prospect he had of the continuance of his prosperity, Job 29:18-25.

29:2 Preserved - From all those miseries which now I feel.

29:3 Darkness - I passed safely through many difficulties, and dangers, and common calamities.

29:7 Seat - When I caused the seat of justice to be set for me.By this, and several other expressions, it appears that Job was a magistrate. Street - In that open place, near the gate, where the people assembled for the administration of justice.

29:10 Cleaved - It lay as still as if he had done so.

29:11 Witness - Gave testimony to my pious, and just, and blameless conversation.

29:14 Put on, etc - Perhaps he did not wear these: but his steady justice was to him instead of all those ornaments.

29:18 Multiply - See how apt even good men are, to set death at a distance from them!

29:20 Glory - My reputation was growing every day. Bow - My strength which is signified by a bow, Gen 49:24 Job 29, Sa1 2:4, because in ancient times the bow and arrows were the principal instruments of war.

29:22 Dropped - As the rain, which when it comes down gently upon the earth, is most acceptable and beneficial to it.

29:24 Laughed - Carried myself so familiarly with them, that they could scarce believe their eyes and ears. Cast not down - They were cautious not to give me any occasion to change my countenance towards them.

29:25 I chose - They sought to me for advice in all difficult cases, and I directed them what methods they should take. Sat - As a prince or judge, while they stood waiting for my counsel. A king - Whose presence puts life, and courage, into the whole army. As one - As I was ready to comfort any afflicted persons, so my consolations were always welcome to them.

NOTES

Continuing his speech, Job recalls the righteous life he once led...

Continuing his speech, Job recalls the righteous life he once led (vv. 2-25). At first glance it may appear that he is merely praising himself, putting his righteousness on display. But this is not about self-praise, nor even about the contrast between that former life and the situation in which Job found himself after the disasters permitted by God had overtaken him. Listing the good deeds he had done, Job gives God a kind of report, as though summing up his former life. He cannot fail to understand that this former, correct, virtuous, and pious life is over. Summing it up, Job is as though saying to God: I have done everything that a righteous man following You could and should have done. I have fulfilled everything possible for a human being; I have nothing to reproach myself for, and no one will say anything bad about me. I not only did no evil to anyone; I did good in full measure, as much as my strength and circumstances allowed. As we can see, Job is completely sincere in his words. This is not boasting; it is preparation for judgment, for that lawsuit with God of which Job himself has spoken more than once.

One could say that, by listing everything he did in his past life, Job presents his case in court, the dossier containing all the materials concerning him and testifying to the righteousness of the litigant. Such a position is not surprising: neither in the pre-exilic nor in the post-exilic period did the righteous consider it necessary to hide their righteousness or be ashamed of it. Of course, flaunting one's righteousness, as the Gospel Pharisee did, was considered rather unseemly for a truly righteous person. But once the matter has come to court, the righteous person has nothing to hide; he will not bear false witness against himself by calling himself a sinner where he sees no sin. And Job too presents to God the arguments for his righteousness. He has all the more moral right to do so because the matter concerns not words but deeds, and deeds for which many of those he helped could have thanked him. Not to say this before the face of God, not to answer the accusations of wickedness that have just been voiced, would mean agreeing with those accusations. But Job does not agree to a lie; he considers his actions the actions of a righteous man, and he says this directly to God.

People usually recall distant times with nostalgia, but Job longs for the former months, so recent and yet already so far away...

Job remembers his former, better days. Now that they are gone, such recollections seem entirely natural for a person who has nothing else left...

Job remembers his former, better days. Now that they are gone, such recollections seem entirely natural for a person who has nothing else left. But are they merely recollections? Of course, Job really had nothing left to do now but remember his former prosperity. Yet he is not remembering only how well he once lived. Above all, Job remembers what he himself regards as his righteousness.

He remembers all the good deeds he performed when his own life was still going well. Apparently Job, like many religious people throughout the ages, held to a simple, understandable principle: live for God, and God will enable you to live well. Here, “for God” means in accordance with religious norms and rules. This need not imply religious formalism or hypocrisy: Job, for instance, really did much good by following the Torah as he understood it. And this is precisely what he remembers, for the righteousness of which Job speaks, and which he is ready to present to God, consists to a large extent in good deeds.

For him, a prosperous life is not simply a reward for righteousness, but a necessary condition for it: in the situation in which Job now finds himself, he can no longer perform any of the good deeds he once did in his days of prosperity. Following the Torah as he understood it justified his prosperity in his own eyes, and he was sure it was justified in God's eyes too. In reality, however, things turned out to be less simple. The issue is not what Satan accused Job of, not the self-interest of his righteousness, but its dependence on external conditions.

If the Torah is such that one can follow it only under conditions of even relative prosperity, then it is not yet the true Torah. The true Torah is not determined by any external conditions, and following it does not depend on any external circumstances. The inner Torah is precisely like this, but Job has not yet fully discovered it for himself. He had probably heard of it, but likely regarded it merely as a supplement to the outer Torah, founded on the strict fulfillment of religious duties and the doing of good deeds. Yet this, it seems, was not enough for God.

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