“Those were the days when I went to the city gate and took my place among the honored leaders.
Parallel translations
- WEB when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.
- KJV When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
- BSB When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,
- NKJV “When I went out to the gate by the city, When I took my seat in the open square,
- NASB “When I went out to the gate of the city, When I took my seat in the public square,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job recalls his honored place at the city gate, where civic affairs were conducted.
Overview
The city gate was the center of public life, where elders judged disputes and made decisions. Job's taking his seat there shows he was a respected leader and judge among his people. This memory of public honor contrasts sharply with his present rejection, underscoring how thoroughly suffering had stripped away his former standing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Deut 16:18You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
- Ruth 4:1–2Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there. Behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by. He said to him, “Come over here, friend, and sit down!” He turned aside, and sat down.
- Zech 8:16These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,
- Ruth 4:11All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which both built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.
- Job 31:21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,
- Deut 21:19then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 29:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.