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Selected Verse: Job 29:2 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 29:2	Strong Concordance	Oh that [05414] I were as in months [03391] past [06924], as in the days [03117] when God [0433] preserved [08104] me;
	King James	Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
preserved me--from calamity.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

preserved me--from calamity.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Oh that I were - Hebrew "Who will give?" a common mode of expressing a wish; compare Job 6:8; Job 11:5; Job 13:5; Job 23:3. As in months past - O that I could recall my former prosperity, and be as was when I enjoyed the protection and favor of God. Probably one object of this wish was that his friends might see from what a state of honor and happiness he had been brought down. They complained of him as impatient. He may have designed to show them that his lamentations were not unreasonable, when it was borne in mind from what a state of prosperity he had been taken, and to what a condition of wo he had been brought. He, therefore, goes into this extended description of his former happiness, and dwells particularly upon the good which he was enabled then to do, and the respect which was shown him as a public benefactor. A passage strikingly similar to this occurs in Virgil, Aeneid viii. 560: O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos! Quails eram, cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos. "O would kind heaven my strength and youth recall, Such as I was beneath Praeneste's wall; There where I made the foremost foes retire, And set whole heaps of conquered shields on fire!"

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Oh that I were - Hebrew "Who will give?" a common mode of expressing a wish; compare Job 6:8; Job 11:5; Job 13:5; Job 23:3.

As in months past - O that I could recall my former prosperity, and be as was when I enjoyed the protection and favor of God. Probably one object of this wish was that his friends might see from what a state of honor and happiness he had been brought down. They complained of him as impatient. He may have designed to show them that his lamentations were not unreasonable, when it was borne in mind from what a state of prosperity he had been taken, and to what a condition of wo he had been brought. He, therefore, goes into this extended description of his former happiness, and dwells particularly upon the good which he was enabled then to do, and the respect which was shown him as a public benefactor. A passage strikingly similar to this occurs in Virgil, Aeneid viii. 560:

O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos!

Quails eram, cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa

Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos.

"O would kind heaven my strength and youth recall,

Such as I was beneath Praeneste's wall;

There where I made the foremost foes retire,

And set whole heaps of conquered shields on fire!"

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Preserved - From all those miseries which now I feel.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

Preserved - From all those miseries which now I feel.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
O that I were as in months past - Job seems here to make an apology for his complaints, by taking a view of his former prosperity, which was very great, but was now entirely at an end. He shows that it was not removed because of any bad use he had made of it; and describes how he behaved himself before God and man, and how much, for justice, benevolence, and mercy, he was esteemed and honored by the wise and good. Preserved me - Kept, guarded, and watched over me.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

O that I were as in months past - Job seems here to make an apology for his complaints, by taking a view of his former prosperity, which was very great, but was now entirely at an end. He shows that it was not removed because of any bad use he had made of it; and describes how he behaved himself before God and man, and how much, for justice, benevolence, and mercy, he was esteemed and honored by the wise and good.

Preserved me - Kept, guarded, and watched over me.

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