Albert Barnes Commentary Job 29:24

"I smiled on them, when they had no confidence; And the light of my countenance they cast not down." — Job 29:24 (ASV)

If I laughed on them they believed it not - There is considerable variety in the interpretation of this part of the verse. Dr. Good renders it, “I smiled upon them, and they were gay.” Herder’s rendering is, “If I laughed at them, they were not offended.” Coverdale’s is, “When I laughed, they knew well it was not earnest.” Schultens’s is, “I will laugh at them, they are not secure.” But Rosenmuller, Jun. et Trem., Noyes, and Umbreit accord with the sense given in our common translation.

The Hebrew literally is, “Should I laugh upon them, they did not confide”; and, according to Rosenmuller, the meaning is, “Such was the reverence for my gravity, that if at any time I relaxed in my severity of manner, they would scarcely believe it, nor did they diminish any of their reverence toward me, as if familiarity with the great should produce contempt.” Grotius explains it to mean, “Even my jests, they thought, contained something serious.”

The word used here, however (שׂחק śâchaq), means not only to laugh or smile upon, but also to laugh at or deride (Psalms 52:6; Job 30:1; compare to Job 5:22, Job 39:7, and Job 22:19). It seems to me that the sense is this: his influence was so great that he could control them with a mere smile, without uttering a word. If, during a debate on a proposed measure, he were to simply smile—even without speaking—they would lose all confidence in the proposal and immediately abandon it as unwise. No higher influence than this can be readily conceived, and this exposition aligns with the general line of argument, where Job traces the various degrees of his influence until he reaches this, the highest of them all.

And the light of my countenance they cast not down - His smile of favor on an undertaking, or his smile at the weakness or lack of wisdom of anything proposed, they could not resist. It settled the matter. They did not have the power by their arguments or moral courage to resist him, even if he did not say a word, or even to change the expression of his countenance. A look, a token of approval or disapproval from him, was enough.