CHAPTER 29 Dec. 22 
Job Describes His Earlier Life
Job again took up his parable and said, 2Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; 3when His lamp shone on my head, and by His light I walked through darkness, 4as I was in the ripeness of my days, when the friendship of God was in my tent, 5when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me, 6when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me, 7when I went forth to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street. 8The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood. 9The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. 10The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. 11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it commended me: 12because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had none to help him, 13the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. 14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. 15I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. 16I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out. 17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out of his teeth. 18Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand. 19My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch. 20My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand’. 21Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel. 22After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them. 23They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain. 24I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face. 25I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners. 

Commentary

29:12 I delivered the poor who cried- False allegation leads us to self defence, and Job seems to fall into the trap of being so self-defensive, listing his good works in such detail, that he forgets his own sinfulness. False accusation, refusal to accept false guilt, not being understood and being rejected by others mustn’t lead us to forget our real and actual sins. In the bigger picture, God used the false accusations to try to make Job take a serious inward look at his life in order to try to bring him to total repentance for what he actually had done wrong. But it seems Job didn’t respond, he got caught up on the level of answering the false accusations and didn’t allow the process of self-examination to go any further as God intended.
29:13 Job's words of 30:1 certainly smack of arrogance: "Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs". This would mean that his merciful acts to the poor were done in a 'charitable' spirit, thinking that such public acts declared him outwardly righteous; he thought that his charity towards the widow were thereby his righteousness, a clothing and diadem of glory and beauty. This has clear reference to the clothing of the Mosaic High Priest with his outward show of righteousness. God was trying to lead Job beyond this to a trust in the righteousness which God imputes and which isn’t our own- see on 25:4. There are times when he realizes this, but the need he felt to clear himself before the friends led him to overlook it; it took God’s final intervention to bring him to throw himself totally upon God’s righteousness and not his own.
29:16 The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out- Our goodness to others shouldn’t be merely a positive response to their requests; rather should we like God think and plan how we can show grace to others, and therefore ‘search out’ their situations and how we could be kind and gracious to them.