(for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow),
Eliphaz had particularly charged Job with unmercifulness to the poor (Job 22:6, etc.): Thou hast withholden bread from the hungry, stripped the naked of their clothing, and sent widows away empty. One would think he could not have been so very positive and express in his charge unless there had been some truth in it, some ground, for it; and yet it appears, by Job's...
Commenting on Job 31:16-23
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing,.... A man may be in such poor circumstances as to want proper clothing to cover his naked body with, and preserve it from the inclemencies of the weather, and for want of it be ready to perish or die with cold.
Parenthetical: asserting that he did the contrary to the things in Job 31:16-17. he--the orphan. guided her--namely, the widow, by advice and protection. On this and "a father," see Job 29:16.