When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,
Job is deep in suffering. He looks back to the days when the world thought much of him. His own report of that reputation raises two questions. Was it true? And was it right for him to make it?
Who the ear and the eye belonged to
One writer says the ear and the eye belong to the people Job had rescued. He hears in Job's words a man who enjoyed being thought so much of.
William KellyJob was highly pleased, and took great pleasure in the world thinking so much of him. "When the ear heard, it called me blessed" — now he is looking at what you may call the objects of his kindness and love. For there was both kindness and love in Job. "And when the eye saw, it approved." He was referring to the people who had been helped out of their many troubles... God delighted in Job; that was all right; and he found at last that God did delight in him, but he did not find that until after the trial. The homage people paid him, and the sense of his own great kindness, lifted him above the ordinary occupations of men. All that lifted him up. Well, that is a very natural thing; but it is not spiritual; and it is the very thing that God was putting down severely in him.
Older translations end the verse "it gave witness to me."
Why the poor spoke well of him
The praise had a cause. The people Job lifted out of trouble did not forget him.
William KellyThe people he helped were moved whenever they saw or heard the man who had rescued them, even though his left hand did not know what his right had done. God does not let the memory of unselfish goodness die. The poor can give as true a witness to loving-kindness as the rich can to a greatness beyond their own. And was not Job the deliverer of the poor, the orphan, the perishing, and the widow?
What pushed Job into self-praise
Job did not begin this speech unprovoked. His friend Eliphaz had accused him of exactly the cruelties this chapter denies.
F. B. HoleEliphaz had just spoken wise words. Then he plunged into a series of accusations against Job. God had given His own testimony about Job at the start of the story, so these charges must have been completely unfounded. Reading them, we can see what provoked Job to sing his own praises, as he does in Job 29. Eliphaz did not deal in vague hints but stated Job's wrongdoing towards the needy, the naked, the weary, the hungry, the widow and the fatherless. In Job 29 Job answers these charges and is just as explicit in declaring how well he had acted towards these very people.
The flaw is not the deed but the recital
Everything Job claims here is true. What spoils it is that he says it himself. One writer takes the rule about the left hand further than keeping a deed secret from others.
William KellyOne beautiful thing about Job was that he did not pretend to be noble, and he did not seek to be a prince. He was like a king in the nobility of his character — what a king ought to be. He was truly noble in his ways. All that would have been admirable if he had not said it or thought it. That is the important point. "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." It does not mean that other people do not know about it. The wrong is that our left hand should know what our right hand does. We ought not to think about it. It is done to God.
Another writer names who should have done the praising.
Samuel RidoutIt is indeed a beautiful picture, but spoiled by the pride of personal recital. "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth."
A chapter full of "I"
Read the whole speech and one word dominates.
F. B. HoleJob 29 has become one of the great "I" chapters of the Bible. Ecclesiastes 2 is Solomon's "I" chapter. That pronoun occurs 16 times in the first 9 verses. It is the true chapter of the self-gratified "I." Job 29 is the chapter of the self-satisfied "I." Romans 7 is of course the chapter of the self-condemned "I." And to be self-condemned is far better than to be self-gratified or self-satisfied. Best of all is to be self-eclipsed, as we find Paul to be in Philippians 3, where he mentions "I" a good many times.
Where the story ends
The book does not leave Job here. Job's eye ends up on God instead of on himself.
J. N. DarbyThat will not do, says God. That is all I, I, I. So He lets the devil loose on him, until Job curses the day he was born. But at last he says, "now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself." That will do, says God; now I can bless you. And He did bless him.
Summary
- True eye — the ear and the eye belong to the poor Job had rescued. They praised a real kindness, and God does not let the memory of unselfish goodness die.
- Provoked eye — Eliphaz's false charges about the widow and the fatherless pushed Job into listing his own good deeds.
- Watching eye — the fault is not the kindness but the telling of it. "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth." Better still, do not think about it yourself.
- Self-filled eye — Job 29 is the chapter of the self-satisfied "I." The self-condemned "I" of Romans 7 is far better. Best of all is the self-eclipsed Paul of Philippians 3.
- Opened eye — the trial ends when Job's eye moves off himself onto God. "Now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself." Only then can God bless him.