When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the open square!
All Commentaries on Job 29:7 Go To Job 29
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
It was the custom of the ancients that the elders should sit together in the gates and judge the cases of those entering in, so that the people of the city might be more peaceful. Now we in revering the sacred history hold it certain that this blessed Job did everything for the sake of the observance of just dealing. We are led further to investigate the mystery of the allegory.
What then is denoted by “the gate of the city”? It refers to every good action by which the soul enters into the company of the heavenly kingdom. Hence the prophet says, “You, who lifted me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.” For “the gates of death” are bad actions that drag to destruction. But because Zion is the word for a viewing, “the gates of Zion” we interpret as good actions by which we enter into the country above, that we may view the glory of our King.
