Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 29:21
Unto me [men] gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
21 25. Return to the main thought of the passage, his place among men, his brothers.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Unto me men gave ear – Job here returns to the time when he sat in the assembly of counsellors, and to the respectful attention which was paid to all that he said. They listened when he spoke; they waited for him to speak before they gave their opinion; and they were then silent. They neither interrupted him nor attempted a reply.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. Unto me men gave ear] The same idea as in Job 29:9-11.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Expecting till I spoke, and silently listening to my counsel, which they were confident would be like the oracle of God, wise, and just, and good, and preferring it before their own judgment.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Job reverts with peculiarpleasure to his former dignity in assemblies (Job29:7-10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Unto me [men] gave ear,…. Or give ear, or shall give ear, being all ear; all attention to him, listening to what he said with the utmost diligence and earnestness; even all sorts of men, high and low, rich and poor, princes, nobles, and common people; this they had done, and Job concluded they still would do the same; see Job 29:9;
and waited; patiently, without any weariness, with pleasure and delight, without giving any interruption, or wishing his discourse was ended; and though continuing ever so long, were not impatient until it was finished:
and kept silence at my counsel; which was the thing waited for, and which when given, it was to the highest satisfaction; they acquiesced in it, and showed their approbation of it by their silence, not having anything to object to it, any alteration to be made in it, or any thing to be added to it; but being so complete and full, they were ready to take it at once, and act according to it; Job’s counsel being like that of Ahithophel, which was as the oracle of God, 2Sa 16:23.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
21 They hearkened to me and waited,
And remained silent at my decision.
22 After my utterance they spake not again,
And my speech distilled upon them.
23 And they waited for me as for the rain,
And they opened their mouth wide for the latter rain.
24 I smiled to them in their hopelessness,
And the light of my countenance they cast not down.
25 I chose the way for them, and sat as chief,
And dwelt as a king in the army,
As one that comforteth the mourners.
Attentive, patient, and ready to be instructed, they hearkened to him (this is the force of ), and waited, without interrupting, for what he should say. , the pausal pronunciation with a reduplication of the last radical, as Jdg 5:7, (according to correct texts), Ges. 20, 2, c; the reading of Kimchi, , is the reading of Ben-Naphtali, the former the reading of Ben-Ascher (vid., Norzi). If he gave counsel, they waited in strictest silence: this is the meaning of ( fut. Kal of ); , poetic for , refers the silence to its outward cause (vid., on Hab 3:16). After his words non iterabant , i.e., as Jerome explanatorily translates: addere nihil audebant , and his speech came down upon them relieving, rejoicing, and enlivening them. The figure indicated in is expanded in Job 29:23 after Deu 32:2: they waited on his word, which penetrated deeply, even to the heart, as for rain, , by which, as Job 29:23, the so-called (autumnal) early rain which moistens the seed is prominently thought of. They open their mouth for the late rain, (vid., on Job 24:6), i.e., they thirsted after his words, which were like the March or April rain, which helps to bring to maturity the corn that is soon to be reaped; this rain frequently fails, and is therefore the more longed for. is to be understood according to Psa 119:131, comp. Psa 81:11; and one must consider, in connection with it, what raptures the beginning of the periodical rains produces everywhere, where, as e.g., in Jerusalem, the people have been obliged for some time to content themselves with cisterns that are almost dried to a marsh, and how the old and young dance for joy at their arrival!
In Job 29:24 a thought as suited to the syntax as to the fact is gained if we translate: “I smiled to them – they believed it not,” i.e., they considered such condescension as scarcely possible (Saad., Raschi, Rosenm., De Wette, Schlottm., and others); is then fut. hypotheticum, as Job 10:16; Job 20:24; Job 22:27., Ew. 357, b. But it does not succeed in putting Job 29:24 in a consistent relation to this thought; for, with Aben-Ezra, to explain: they did not esteem my favour the less on that account, my respect suffered thereby no loss among them, is not possible in connection with the biblical idea of “the light of the countenance;” and with Schlottm. to explain: they let not the light of my countenance, i.e., token of my favour, fall away, i.e., be in vain, is contrary to the usage of the language, according to which signifies: to cause the countenance to sink (gloomily, Gen 4:5), whether one’s own, Jer 3:12, or that of another. Instead of we have a more pictorial and poetical expression here, : light of my countenance, i.e., my cheerfulness (as Pro 16:15). Moreover, the , therefore, furnishes the thought that he laughed, and did not allow anything to dispossess him of his easy and contented disposition. Thus, therefore, those to whom Job laughed are to be thought of as in a condition and mood which his cheerfulness might easily sadden, but still did not sadden; and this their condition is described by (a various reading in Codd. and editions is ), a phrase which occurred before (Job 24:22) in the signification of being without faith or hope, despairing (comp. , to gain faith, Psa 116:10), – a clause which is not to be taken as attributive (Umbr., Vaih.: who had not confidence), but as a neutral or circumstantial subordinate clause (Ew. 341, a). Therefore translate: I smiled to them, if they believed not, i.e., despaired; and however despondent their position appeared, the cheerfulness of my countenance they could not cause to pass away. However gloomy they were, they could not make me gloomy and off my guard. Thus also Job 29:25 is now suitably attached to the preceding: I chose their way, i.e., I made the way plain, which they should take in order to get out of their hopeless and miserable state, and sat as chief, as a king who is surrounded by an armed host as a defence and as a guard of honour, attentive to the motion of his eye; not, however, as a sovereign ruler, but as one who condescended to the mourners, and comforted them ( Piel, properly to cause to breathe freely). This peaceful figure of a king brings to mind the warlike one, Job 15:24. is not a conj. here, but equivalent to , ut ( quis ) qui ; consequently not: as one comforts, but: as he who comforts; lxx correctly: . The accentuation ( Tarcha, Munach, Silluk) is erroneous; should be marked with Rebia mugrasch, and with Mercha-Zinnorith.
From the prosperous and happy past, absolutely passed, Job now turns to the present, which contrasts so harshly with it.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
21. Kept silence at my counsel Not unlike “the long silence” that followed upon one of the masterly arguments of Socrates. Phaedo, 76.
Job 29:21 Unto me [men] gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
Ver. 21. Unto me men gave ear, and waited ] i.e. Such a gift I had in flexanimous oratory, that my auditors were held, as it were, by the ears in great attention to my speeches; as Lucian saith of Alcibiades, and Cicero of Crassus; and as the poets fable of their Hercules, that he had the ears of his hearers chained to his tongue, as being,
A , .
And kept silence at my counsel ] Received it as an oracle from heaven with all humble submission and plenary satisfaction; so great was the force of his wisdom, the weight of his counsel, and the authority of his person, tanquam ex tripode dictum. Erant (Lavat.). In some men’s discourses a man shall have satis eloquentiae, sapientiae parum, much eloquence, little enough wisdom. But where there is a concurrence of these two, as was in Job, much may be done. This great men are not ignorant of, and do therefore greatly covet eloquence, Non phaleratam illam sed fortem; non effeminatum sed virilem, not a pedantic style or phrase, but majestic; such as was that of Phocion, a great orator, but one that could speak much in few, as Plutarch reporteth, ; or that of Julius Caesar, who wrote as he fought; and whom a man might know to be a soldier by his words, had he never heard of his noble achievements.
gave ear: Job 29:9, Job 29:10, Job 32:11, Job 32:12
Reciprocal: Job 19:9 – stripped Pro 10:21 – feed
Job 29:21-23. Unto me men gave ear When I spake all men gave me the greatest attention, and my word was a law to them; and waited and kept silence, &c. Expecting till I spake, and silently listening to my counsel, which they were confident would be wise, and just, and good, and preferring it to their own judgment. After my words they spake not again Either to confute them as false, or to add any thing to them as being lame and imperfect. And my speech dropped upon them Hebrew, , tittop, distilled as the dew, as Ab. Ezra renders it, referring to Deu 32:2, where Moses, writing in the same style, says, My doctrine shall drop as the rain, &c. As rain is most acceptable and beneficial to the earth, not when it comes down in great and violent storms, but when it descends in moderate and gentle showers; so my words sweetly distilled upon them, and sunk into their hearts. And they waited for me as for the rain They expected my opinion and advice, with silent attention, and with the same eager desire wherewith the husbandman expects the showers after he has sown his seed. And they opened their mouth wide They gaped, as it were, with desire for my words, as the dry and parched earth thirsts and opens its mouth to receive the rain after a long, droughty season. Among the Egyptians, the heavens pouring down rain or dew, was the hieroglyphic, or emblem, of learning and instruction.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments