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Selected Verse: Job 29:16 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Job 29:16 |
King James |
I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
So far was I from "breaking the arms of the fatherless," as Eliphaz asserts (Job 22:9), I was a "father" to such.
the cause which I knew not--rather, "of him whom I knew not," the stranger (Pro 29:7 [UMBREIT]; contrast Luk 18:1, &c.). Applicable to almsgiving (Psa 41:1); but here primarily, judicial conscientiousness (Job 31:13). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
I was a father to the poor - I took them under my protection, and treated them as if they were my own children.
And the cause which I knew not I searched out - This is according to the interpretation of Jerome. But the more probable meaning is, "the cause of him who was unknown to me, that is, of the stranger, I searched out." So Rosenmuller, Herder, Umbreit, and Good. According to this, the sense is, that, as a magistrate, he gave particular attention to the cause of the stranger, and investigated it with care. It is possible that Job here designs specifically to reply to the charge brought against him by Eliphaz in Job 22:6 ff. The duty of showing particular attention to the stranger is often inculcated in the Bible, and was regarded as essential to a character of uprightness and piety among the Orientals. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
The cause which I knew not I searched out - When any thing difficult occurred, I did not give it a slight consideration; I examined it to the bottom, whatever pain, time, and trouble it cost me, that I might not pronounce a hasty judgment. |
13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;
1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
7 The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.
9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.