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Job_29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment [was] as a robe and a diadem.
Ver. 14. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me] It was not ambition, popularity, or self-interest that put Job upon these and the following good practices and proceedings, but the care he had of discharging his trust, and the pure love he bare to justice and upright dealing, Fontem horum officiorum aperit (Merlin). For although he desired more to be loved than honoured (as it is said of Trajan the emperor), yet he would not do anything of popularity or partiality, by writhing or warping, but retained the gravity of the law; which is a heart without affection, an eye without lust, a mind without passion, a treasurer which keepeth for every man what he hath, and distributeth to every man what he ought to have, Féëïõìåíïò ìáëëïí ç ðéìùìåíïò å÷áéñå (Dio). Job did put on righteousness, and it put on him; so the Hebrew hath it. By which similitude he declareth that he could as little be drawn from doing justice as he could go abroad without his clothes, or suffer them to be pulled off him, Declinatione et detorsione iudicii (Merlin).
My judgment was as a robe and a diadem] Righteousness is that whereby the innocent is delivered, judgment is that whereby the guilty person is punished, saith Brentius. With these was Job arrayed and adorned far better than was Alcisthenes the Sybarite with his cloak, sold by Dionysius to the Carthaginians for a hundred and twenty talents (Athenaeus); or Hanun with his solid gold diadem, "the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones," 2Sa_12:30. Some judges have nothing more to commend them than their robes, which are oft lined with rapine and robbery. So were not Job’s; he made the like use of them that old Eleazar did of his hoariness, he would not do anything that might seem to be evil, because he would not spot his white head; no more would Job, lest he should stain his purple, disgrace his diadem. He knew that dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto, Ruledom without righteousness is but eminent dishonour (Salvian).