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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 29:11 - 29:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
11 For an ear heard, and called me happy;
And an eye saw, and bear witness to me:
12 For I rescued the sufferer who cried for help,
And the orphan, and him that had no helper.
13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me,
And I made the widow's heart rejoice.
14 I put on justice, and it put me on;
As a robe and turban was my integrity.
Thus imposing was the impression of his personal appearance wherever he appeared; for (כִּי explic.) the fulness of the blessing of the possession of power and of prosperity which he enjoyed was so extraordinary, that one had only to hear of it to call him happy, and that, especially if any one saw it with his own eyes, he was obliged to bear laudatory testimony to him. The futt. consec. affirm what was the inevitable consequence of hearing and seeing; הֵעִיד, seq. acc., is used like הִזְכִּיר in the signification of laudatory recognition. The expression is not brachylogical for וַתָּעַד לִּי (vid., on Job 31:18); for from 1Ki 21:10, 1Ki 21:13, we perceive that העיד with the acc. of the person signifies to make any one the subject of assertion, whether he be lower or higher in rank (comp. the New Testament word, especially in Luke, μαρτυρεῖσθαι). It was, however, not merely the outward manifestation of his unusual prosperity which called forth such admiration, but his active benevolence united with the abundant resources at his command. For where there was a sufferer who cried for help he, relieved him, especially orphans and those who had no helper. וְלֹא־עֹזֵר לֹו is either a new third object, or a closer definition of what precedes: the orphan and (in this state of orphanhood) helpless one. The latter is more probable both here and in the Salomonic primary passage, Psa 72:12; in the other case ואשׁר אין־עזר לח might be expected.
Job 29:13
The blessing (בִּרְכַּת with closely closed penult.) of those who stood on the brink of destruction (אֹובֵד, interiturus, as Job 31:19; Pro 31:6), and owed their rescue to him, came upon him; and the heart of the widow to whom he gave assistance, compensating for the assistance of her lost husband, he filled with gladness (הִרְנִין causative, as Psa 65:9). For the primary attribute, the fundamental character of his way of thinking and acting, was צֶדֶק, a holding fast to the will of God, which before everything else calls for sympathizing love (root צדק, Arab. ṣdq, to be hard, firm, stiff, e.g., rumh-un sadq-un, according to the Kamus: a hard, firm, straight spear), and מִשְׁפָּט, judgment and decision in favour of right and equity against wrong and injustice. Righteousness is here called the garment which he put on (as Psa 132:9, comp. Isa 11:5; Isa 59:17), and right is the robe and turban with which he adorns himself (comp. Isa 61:10); as by Arabian poets noble attributes are also called garments, which God puts on any one, or which any one puts on himself (albasa).
(Note: In Beidhâwi, if I remember rightly, this expression occurs once, Arab. 'l-tdrr‛ blbls 'l-tqwy, i.e., “clothing one's self in the armour of the fear of God.”)
Righteousness is compared to the לבושׁ (corresponding to the thob, i.e., garment, indusium, of the nomads) which is worn on the naked body, justice to the צָנִיף, a magnificent turban (corresponding to the kefije, consisting of a thick cotton cloth, and fastened with a cord made of camel's hair), and the magnificent robe (corresponding to the second principal article of clothing, the ‛abâ). The lxx, Jer., Syr., and Arab. wrongly refer וַיִּלְבָּשֵׁנִי to משׁפטי of the second half of the verse, while, on the contrary, it is said of צדק, per antanaclasin, that Job put this on, and this in turn put Job on, induit; for וילבשׁני, as the usage of the language, as we have it, elsewhere shows, does not signify: it (righteousness) clothed me well (Umbr.), or: adorned me (Ew., Vaih.), also not: it dressed me out (Schlottm.), but only: it put me on as a garment, i.e., it made me so its own, that my whole appearance was the representation of itself, as in Jdg 6:34 and twice in the Chronicles, of the Spirit of Jehovah it is said that He puts on any one, induit, when He makes any one the organ of His own manifestation.