(concretely) a boy (as active) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
about
סְבִ֖יבוֹתַ֣יse.Vi.vo.Tai
H5439
(as noun) a circle · noun, common both genders plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 128:3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Psalms 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Deuteronomy 33:27-29 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, D…
Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whith…
Psalms 30:7 LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
Song of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Song of Solomon 3:1-2 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
Judges 6:12-13 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 29:1-6
Losers may have leave to speak, and there is nothing they speak of more feelingly than of the comforts they are stripped of. Their former prosperity is one of the most pleasing subjects of their thoughts and talk. It was so to Job, who begins here with a wish (Job 29:2): O that I were as in months past! so he brings in this account of his prosperity. His wish is, 1. "O that I were in as good a state as I was in then, that I had as much wealth, honour, and pleasure, as I had then!" This he wishes, from a concern he had, not so much for his ease, as for his reputation and the glory of his God, which he thought were eclipsed by his present sufferings. "O that I might be restored to my prosperit…
youth--literally, "autumn"; the time of the ripe fruits of my prosperity. Applied to youth, as the Orientalists began their year with autumn, the most temperate season in the East.
secret--when the intimate friendship of God rested on my tent (Pro 3:32; Psa 31:20; Gen 18:17; Joh 15:15). The Hebrew often means a divan for deliberation.
John Gill on Job 29:5
When the Almighty was yet with me,.... Not merely by his powerful and providential presence, as he is with all men; but in a special manner by his gracious presence, which is a wonderful and distinguishing favour; but sometimes the people of God are without it, at least they think so, and which was now Job's case, see Job 23:2; and therefore he desires he would return to him, and show him his face and favour:
when my children were about me; as olive plants about his table, in their youth; when he looked at them with great delight and pleasure, as his growing hopes; and, when grown up, and were not far from him, but were round about him, and lay near his heart, and whose welfare, temporal an…
1 Then Job continued to take up his proverb, and said:
2 O that I had months like the times of yore,
Like the days when Eloah protected me,
3 When He, when His lamp, shone above my head,
By His light I went about in the darkness;
4 As I was in the days of my vintage,
When the secret of Eloah was over my tent,
5 When the Almighty was still with me,
My children round about me;
6 When my steps were bathed in cream,
And the rock beside me poured forth streams of oil.
Since the optative מי־יתּן (comp. on Job 23:3) is connected with the acc. of the object desired, Job 14:4; Job 31:31, or of that respecting which anything is desired, Job 11:5, it is in itself possible to explain: who gives (makes)…
The Church Fathers
"And let my servants around me. Those who, humble and submissive, knew how to provide for all my needs,
When the Almighty was yet with me; and when my servants were about me. Now all that stand in awe of the divine precepts become God's 'tabernacle.' Hence as we have already said above, 'Truth' saith by Himself of the man that keeps His commandments, I and My Father will come and make Our abode with him. Contrariwise the wicked severally, whereas they do not aim at the things within, pour themselves forth without in the thoughts of their hearts. Whence it is said to them by the Prophet, Turn back to the heart within, O ye transgressors. And again, Woe to you that devise a vain thing. Since in their actions they are afraid of men, whom they see with bodily sight, and God, Whom they do not see, they do not account to be present to them. Contrary whereunto it is said in commendation of a righteous person, seeing that he disregarded the king of Egypt, and obeyed the commandments of God, For he endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible. For the wicked ruler of the earth he as it were saw not, in that he banished him from the eyes of the heart. But the King Invisible 'as seeing,' 'he endured,' because from the regarding of His fear he turned not aside the eye of the soul. So Holy Church being taken then in great tribulations, when she sees many by evil imagining depart from God, surely she sees the tabernacle of their mind on God's departing to remain empty, and justly lamenting, she says, When God was secretly in my tabernacle. By which words, and not inappropriately, the feigning of religion is likewise bewailed, because there are those even now that aim not to be, but to seem Christians. These without question have God in public, not 'in secret.' But Holy Church desires to have God 'in secret,' because He regards those really faithful ones, whom He knows to be holding on to the life of faith with complete affection. Which same, as well also with reference to the external uprightness of her activity, saith, When the Almighty was yet with me: when my servants were about me. 'Servants' surely those are called, who do the bidding of the heavenly precepts. Whence the Lord saith by the Prophet, Behold I, and my servants which the Lord hath given me. And again in the Gospel, Servants, have ye any meat? And so now 'the servants are round about her,' because in all nations almost there are found those that keep the commandments of heaven, and obey the rules of spiritual…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Although elsewhere Job uses the Hebrew shamar to describe what he perceived as God’s oppressive surveillance (10:14; 13:27; 14:16), here it refers to God’s kindly care (“watch(es) over,” Ps 121:3-8).
