Albert Barnes Commentary Job 31:18

"(Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, And her have I guided from my mother`s womb);" — Job 31:18 (ASV)

For from my youth he was brought up with me – this verse is usually regarded as a parenthesis, though various interpretations have been given of it. Some have understood it as denying that he had in any way neglected the widow and the fatherless, and affirming that the orphan had always, even from his youth, found a father in him, and the widow a guide. Others, like our translators, suppose that it is a parenthesis inserted to indicate his general course of life, although the imprecation he makes on himself, if he had neglected the widow and the orphan, is found in (Job 31:22). Luther reads the two previous verses as questions and this one as an answer to them; Rosenmuller and Noyes do so as well. Umbreit regards this verse as a parenthesis.

This is probably the correct interpretation, as it agrees better with the Hebrew than the other proposed one. It implies a denial of having neglected the widow and the orphan, but the full expression of his abhorrence of such a charge is found in the strong language in (Job 31:22). The unusual Hebrew word גדלני gâdalniy probably stands for עמי גדל gâdal ‛imy – “he was brought up with me.” This form of the word does not occur elsewhere.

As with a father – that is, he always found in me one who treated him as a father. The meaning is that he had always had orphans under his care, that from his very youth they had been accustomed to look up to him as a father, and that they had never been disappointed in him. It is the language of one who seems to have been born to rank, who had the means to benefit others, and who had done so all his life. This also accords with Eastern notions of kindness, which require that it should be shown especially to the widow and the fatherless.

I have guided her – the marginal note reads: “That is, the widow.” The meaning is that he had been her counselor and friend.

From my mother’s womb – this cannot be literally true but means that he had done it from early life; or, as we would say, he had always done it.