I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.
We have here Job in a post of honour and power. Though he had comfort enough in his own house, yet he did not confine himself to that. We are not born for ourselves, but for the public. When any business was to be done in the gate, the place of judgment, Job went out to it through the city (Job 29:7), not in an...
Commenting on Job 29:7-17
I was a father to the poor,.... Not in a literal sense; for his children were rich as well as himself, while he had them; but in a civil sense, he was the patron of the poor; he was an advocate for them, he took their part, he pleaded their cause, defended their persons, and secured the little property they had; he had the pity...
So far was I from "breaking the arms of the fatherless," as Eliphaz asserts (Job 22:9), I was a "father" to such. the cause which I knew not--rather, "of him whom I knew not," the stranger (Pro 29:7 [UMBREIT]; contrast Luk 18:1, &c.). Applicable to almsgiving (Psa 41:1); but here primarily, judicial conscientiousness (Job 31:13).