Ryan Pitterson

How could Job be king?

This is Job lamenting on the good old days before all the problems came into his life from Satan, which he didn't know was happening, of course, but it was.

So he's saying right from the end of the chapter, oh, that I were as in months past.

As in the days when God preserved me.

So this is when life is good.

When his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness.

As I was in the days of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle.

Now I'm skipping ahead a little bit.

When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street.

The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the age rose and stood up.

The princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth.

The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

Unto me men gave ear and waited and kept silence at my counsel.

After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them.

Job is saying that when he spoke...

No one else spoke.

When he walked in, everyone stood up.

When princes stopped speaking in his presence.

So he's speaking himself as if he is above them.

He's exalted above them.