I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.
Job ends his memories of better days at the very top: he led, he ruled, he comforted. Commentators see two things at once: a true record of a great and kind man, and a speech in which that man cannot stop talking about himself.
A king among his people
One writer pictures Job stepping in when people did not know what to do.
Leslie M. GrantWhen people were in confusion, Job was there to choose their way for them (v.25). He even felt himself as a king in the army, able to arrange things for the people in a way they knew was good for them. How unusual a man he was!
His place was not an office anyone had given him. Kelly notes how much weight this carried: "so great was the reverence that greeted Job's presence among them, with an influence all the more because it was unofficial" (William Kelly).
One who comforts mourners
One writer draws out the last phrase from an older wording of the verse.
Morrish Bible DictionaryJob says, "I sat chief, and lived as a king among warriors, as one comforting fellow-mourners." He was as one with them.
Kelly adds that this was no passing phase.
William KellyIn short, Job was their treasured adviser in trouble... and he really was one who comforted the mourners. That had been his life all along, without a break.
The chapter where "I" rules
Every word of it was true. That is the difficulty — one writer counted the pronouns.
C. H. MackintoshThis is truly a most remarkable statement. We look in vain for any sign of a broken and contrite spirit here. There are no signs of self-loathing, or even of self-distrust. We cannot find so much as a single expression of conscious weakness and nothingness. In this one chapter, Job refers to himself more than forty times, while the references to God are only five.
That makes the chapter one of a set, and the set has an order to it.
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, and 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.
Why the throne had to go
The problem was not that Job's good deeds were false, but that he had begun to rest on them.
J. N. DarbyJob was upright, but he began to make this his righteousness. That clearly proves he had never really been in the presence of God... We find also in Job 29 that his heart had dwelt on his upright and kind life with self-satisfaction, praising himself and feeding his self-love with it. "When the eye saw me it gave witness to me." God was bringing him to say, "Now my eye sees You, and I abhor myself."
(The two lines Job quotes are Job 29:11 and Job 42:5–6 in an older translation. The ESV of the second reads, "but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself.")
God dealt with him out of love, not anger. Job "valued his character and his circumstances," and God, "because He loved him... put him into His own school to train him" (J. G. Bellett). Kelly presses it with questions: there was real grace in Job, "but why should he talk about it? Why should he think about it? Why should he not think of the source of all the blessing?" (William Kelly).
Comfort that comes from God
There is another way to comfort mourners, and the difference is where the comfort comes from. One writer sets Paul's opening words in 2 Corinthians against this verse.
A. PridhamHe offers himself to our confidence, not as a self-cured physician, and not in the spirit of Job, who in his own sufficiency sat as one that comforts the mourners (Job 29:25). He offers himself as one whom God had first emptied and then filled with the fullness of His own effectual grace.
Summary
- Real. Job did choose people's way, sit as chief, and comfort mourners. The writers do not doubt a word of it.
- Rehearsed. The same record turns into a trap when a man counts it over to himself. In one chapter he names himself more than forty times, and God five.
- Rooted. He had started to treat his upright walk as his righteousness, which shows he had not yet stood in God's presence.
- Removed. God took the seat of honour away in love, not anger, to bring Job to say, "now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself."
- Refilled. Real comfort for mourners never comes from self-sufficiency. It comes from a person God has first emptied and then filled.