Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 29:25

"I chose out their way, and sat [as] chief, And dwelt as a king in the army, As one that comforteth the mourners." — Job 29:25 (ASV)

I sat. —It is still the custom among the Jews for mourners to sit on the ground, and for one who wishes to console them to occupy a seat above them. Such is Job’s poignant lamentation over the days that were gone. He appears before us as a conspicuous example of one who had worn the poet’s crown of sorrow, remembering happier things in his time of sorrow. He is the type and representative of suffering humanity, of humanity waiting for redemption but not yet redeemed. In this way, he points us to Christ, who, Himself the Redeemer, went through all the sorrows of sinful and unredeemed humanity.

He is able to describe his former state and all its glory and bliss, while his friends are constrained to listen in silence. They have said their worst; they have aspersed and maligned his character, but they have not silenced him. He is still able to make the most complete vindication of all his past life, contrasting its happiness with the present contempt and insult he endures—an experience largely due to their heartless, unsympathetic treatment of him—all while they can make no reply.