Job 29:16

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…

I was a father to the poor - I took them under my protection, and treated them as if they were my own children. And the cause which I knew not I searched out - This is according to the interpretation…

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…

the cause which I knew not Rather, the cause of him whom I knew not. Not merely the poor about him, to whom he might feel that he owed help, but even strangers who had a cause that needed unravelling…