to lave (the whole or a part of a thing) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
steps
הֲלִיכַ֣יha.li.Khai
H1978
a walk · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
butter
בְּחֵמָ֑הbe.che.Mah
H2529
curdled milk or cheese · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
rock
וְצ֥וּרve.Tzur
H6697
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
יָצ֥וּקya.Tzuk
H6694
to pour out · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
rivers
פַּלְגֵיpal.gei-
H6388
a rill (i.e. small channel of water · noun, common masculine plural construct
oil
שָֽׁמֶןSha.men
H8081
grease · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
Deuteronomy 32:13-14 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the roc…
Deuteronomy 33:24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.
Genesis 49:11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of gra…
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…
butter--rather, "cream," literally, "thick milk." Wherever I turned my steps, the richest milk and oil flowed in to me abundantly. Image from pastoral life.
When I washed my steps--Literal washing of the feet in milk is not meant, as the second clause shows; Margin, "with me," that is, "near" my path, wherever I walked (Deu 32:13). Olives amidst rocks yield the best oil. Oil in the East is used for food, light, anointing, and medicine.
John Gill on Job 29:6
When I washed my steps with butter,.... Not the steps of his house or palace; for to have done this, or his servants by his orders, as it would have been a very great impropriety, so a piece of great prodigality, which Job could never have been guilty of; but either his footsteps, the prints of his feet; and the sense be, that his cattle produced such a vast quantity of milk, that when his servants brought it from the fields to the dairy, their milk pails ran over in such abundance, that Job could not step out of his house, and take a walk in his fields, but he stepped into puddles of milk, of which butter was made: this is an exaggerated phrase, like that by which the land of Canaan is desc…
"As butter ran down my ways. My morals broke through my faith and my good works. "And that for me milk flowed in abundance from the mountains. That the prophets were perfectly understood by the little ones.
When I washed my feet with butter. And the rock poured me out rivers of oil. Whereas we have already frequently said that Christ and the Church are one person, He, that is to say, the Head of that Body, and She the Body of that Head; these words are to be understood after the voice of the Head in one way, after the voice of the Body in another way. Whom then do we take for 'the feet' of the Lord, but the holy Preachers. Of whom He saith, And I will walk in them. Thus 'the feet are washed with butter,' because the holy Preachers are filled to the full with the fatness of good works. For, as we have already said above, scarcely is the mere preaching itself carried on without something being done wrong. For any man preaching is either drawn on into some slight indignation, if he is despised, or into some little glorying, if he is reverenced by those that hear him. Whence the Apostles too had their feet washed, that from any slight defilement contracted in the act of preaching itself they might be cleansed as from a sort of dust collected by a journey. And blessed James saith, My brethren, be not many masters. And a little after, For in many things we offend all. Thus 'the feet are washed with butter,' because the dust gathered by glory in preaching is steeped and cleansed by the fatness of good works. Or otherwise 'the feet are washed with butter,' when the wages owing are paid to the holy Preachers by those that hear, and those whom the imposed labour of preaching exhausts, the richness of good practice exhibited by the disciples cheers; not that they preach for this that they may be fed, but that they are therefore fed, that they may preach; i.e. that they may hold up to preach; not so that the action of the preacher should pass into the aim of getting support, but that the ministering of support should be made subservient to the usefulness of preaching. Whence by good preachers it is not for the sake of the means of living that preaching is rendered, but for the sake of preaching that the means of living are accepted. And as often as what is wanted is bestowed on those that preach by those that hear them, they are not used to take delight in the benefit of the good things, but in the reward of those bestowing them. Whence it is said by Paul, Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit. For the 'gift' is the actual thing that is bestowed; but the fruit…
Dictionary and topics
Butter — (Heb. hemah), curdled milk (Gen. 18:8; Judg. 5:25; 2 Sam. 17:29), or butter in the form of the skim of hot milk or cream, called by the Arabs kaimak, a semi-fluid (Job 20:17; 29:6; Deut. 32:14). The…
River — (1.) Heb. ‘aphik, properly the channel or ravine that holds water (2 Sam. 22:16), translated “brook,” “river,” “stream,” but not necessarily a perennial stream (Ezek. 6:3; 31:12; 32:6; 34:13). (2.)…
Feet, The · Illustrative: (Washed or dipped in oil,) of abundance — Illustrative: (Washed or dipped in oil,) of abundance
Oil · Petroleum (?) — Petroleum (?)
Petroleum · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Rivers · Illustrative: Of abundance — Illustrative: Of abundance
Rock · Oil from — Oil from
Rocks · The olive tree flourished amongst — The olive tree flourished amongst
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
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)…
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).
Rashi on Job 29:6
my feet Heb. הליכי, my feet.
with cream Heb. בְּחֵמָה, like בחמאה.
and the rock that was with me would pour forth rivulets of oil i.e., all the desires of my heart, which are as pleasing as rivulets of oil.
would pour as in (Lev. 2:6), “and you shall pour.”