Job 29:7
When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,
BSB
ASV
When I went forth to the gate unto the city, 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!
When I went out to the gate of the city, and in the street they prepared me a chair. It was the custom of the ancients, that the elders should sit together in the gates, and judge the cases of those entering in, that so the people of the city might be the more peaceful, in proportion as it was not allowed to those at variance to enter in.
When I went out to the gate - The “gate” of a city was a place of public concourse, and where courts were usually held. Job speaks here as a magistrate, and of the time when he went forth to sit as a judge, to try causes. When I prepared my seat in the street - That is, to sit as a judge. The seat or tribunal was placed in the street, in the open air, before the gate of the city, where great numbers might be convened, and hear and see justice done.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Zechariah 8:16These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another, render true and sound judgments in your gates,
leads to
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another.
He who walks with integrity and practices righteousness, who speaks the truth from his heart,
Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up…
Through
Ruth 4:11“We are witnesses,” said the elders and all the people at the gate. “May the LORD make the woman entering your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.…
leads to
And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.”
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people…
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days…
Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.