Job 29:16
New International Version
I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger.

New Living Translation
I was a father to the poor and assisted strangers who needed help.

English Standard Version
I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

Berean Standard Bible
I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

King James Bible
I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

New King James Version
I was a father to the poor, And I searched out the case that I did not know.

New American Standard Bible
“I was a father to the poor, And I investigated the case which I did not know.

NASB 1995
“I was a father to the needy, And I investigated the case which I did not know.

NASB 1977
“I was a father to the needy, And I investigated the case which I did not know.

Legacy Standard Bible
I was a father to the needy, And I searched out the case which I did not know.

Amplified Bible
“I was a father to the needy; I investigated the case I did not know [and assured justice].

Christian Standard Bible
I was a father to the needy, and I examined the case of the stranger.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I was a father to the needy, and I examined the case of the stranger.

American Standard Version
I was a father to the needy: And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
I was a father to the afflicted, and judgment that I had not known I searched out

Brenton Septuagint Translation
I was the father of the helpless; and I searched out the cause which I knew not.

Contemporary English Version
I was a father to the needy, and I defended them in court, even if they were strangers.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I was the father of the poor: and the cause which I knew not, I searched out most diligently.

English Revised Version
I was a father to the needy: and the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I was father to the needy. I carefully investigated cases brought by strangers.

Good News Translation
I was like a father to the poor and took the side of strangers in trouble.

International Standard Version
I was a father to the needy; I diligently inquired into the case of those I didn't know.

JPS Tanakh 1917
I was a father to the needy; And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

Literal Standard Version
I [am] a father to the needy, | And the cause I have not known I search out.

Majority Standard Bible
I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

New American Bible
I was a father to the poor; the complaint of the stranger I pursued,

NET Bible
I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case of the person I did not know;

New Revised Standard Version
I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.

New Heart English Bible
I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I did not know, I searched out.

Webster's Bible Translation
I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

World English Bible
I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

Young's Literal Translation
A father I am to the needy, And the cause I have not known I search out.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Job's Former Blessings
15I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame. 16I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger. 17I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.…

Cross References
Job 4:3
Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

Job 24:4
They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

Proverbs 29:7
The righteous consider the cause of the poor, but the wicked have no regard for such concerns.

Isaiah 22:21
I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.


Treasury of Scripture

I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

a father

Job 31:18
(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

Esther 2:7
And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

Psalm 68:5
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

the cause

Exodus 18:26
And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

Deuteronomy 13:14
Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;

Deuteronomy 17:8-10
If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose; …

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Job 29
1. Job bemoans his former prosperity














Verse 16. - I was a father to the poor (comp. ver. 12, and see below, ch. 31:16-22): and the cause which I knew not I searched out; rather, the cause of him that I knew not I searched out (see the Revised Version). When men were quite unknown to him, Job still gave to their causes the utmost possible attention, "searching them out," or investigating them, as diligently as if they had been the causes of his own friends.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
I
אָ֭נֹכִֽי (’ā·nō·ḵî)
Pronoun - first person common singular
Strong's 595: I

was a father
אָ֣ב (’āḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1: Father

to the needy,
לָֽאֶבְיוֹנִ֑ים (lā·’eḇ·yō·w·nîm)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 34: In want, needy, poor

and I took up
אֶחְקְרֵֽהוּ׃ (’eḥ·qə·rê·hū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - first person common singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 2713: To penetrate, to examine intimately

the case
וְרִ֖ב (wə·riḇ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7379: Strife, dispute

of the stranger.
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no


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OT Poetry: Job 29:16 I was a father to the needy (Jb)
Job 29:15
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