Job 29:16
I was a father to the poor, searching out the cause of him who was strange to me.
Bible in Basic English
In The King James Version
I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
In Context
15I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no power of walking.
Cross References
Exodus 18:26And they were judges in the causes of the people at all times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every small point they gave decisions themselves.
Deuteronomy 17:8If you are not able to give a decision as to who is responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked out by the Lord your God;
1 Kings 3:16Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king;
Job 24:4The crushed are turned out of the way; all the poor of the earth go into a secret place together.
Job 31:18(For I was cared for by God as by a father from my earliest days; he was my guide from the body of my mother;)
Job 31:32The traveller did not take his night's rest in the street, and my doors were open to anyone on a journey;
Matthew Henry on Job 29:8-18
7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street! 8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up. 9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. 10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. 11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: 12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. 13 The… Read the whole commentary →