Job 29:7–29:17, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 29:7–29:17
Job Recalls Public Honor and Advocacy for the Vulnerable
The gate knew him as a public advocate
Job went out to the gate through the city and prepared his seat in the street. Young men hid. Aged men rose. Princes stopped talking and laid a hand on their mouth. Nobles held their peace. When the ear heard him, it blessed him. When the eye saw him, it gave witness.
The reason he gives is not charm. He delivered the poor who cried, the fatherless, and the one who had none to help him. The blessing of the one ready to perish came on him. He caused the widow's heart to sing. He put on righteousness and it clothed him. Judgment was a robe and a diadem.
He was eyes, feet, father, and breaker of jaws
He was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, a father to the poor. He searched out the cause he did not know. He broke the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
This is Job's self-defense, and the book has already called him blameless in a way the friends would not. Concrete justice for the poor is the content of that honor. The testimony does not authorize later readers to become a law to themselves, to excuse their own harm, or to treat violence as a personal sport. Rescue of prey is not a warrant for a private militia.
How this should shape us
If you want Job's remembered honor, do the work he names: hear the cry, search out a cause, clothe yourself with judgment. Do not use his seat at the gate to baptize celebrity, and do not use the broken jaw as a permit for unchecked force.
Teach it back
Explain Job 29:7–29:17 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
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Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 29:7–29:17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 29:7–29:17
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 29:7–29:17.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 29:7–29:17
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 29:7–29:17
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 29:7–29:17
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 29:7–29:17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 29:7–29:17
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 29:7–29:17.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 29:7–29:17
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 29:7–29:17
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗peer reviewed open access literary and theological article
A Matter of Justice: The Openness of the Book of Job
Hans Ausloos
Old Testament Essays 36.1, 2023
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Exact location: Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 29:7–29:17
Open Ausloos on Job and justice ↗