Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

Because I had delivered the poor man that cried out; and the fatherless that had no helper.

For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.

For I deliver the afflicted who is crying, And the fatherless who hath no helper.

For I was a saviour to the poor when he was crying for help, to the child with no father, and to him who had no supporter.

This was because I had freed the poor, who cried out, and the orphan, who had no helper.

Because I delivered the poor that cried - This is spoken of himself as a magistrate or judge - for the whole description relates to that. The meaning is, that when the poor man, who had no means of employing counsel, brought his cause before him, he heard him and delivered him from the grasp of the oppressor. He never made an appeal to him in vain; compare Proverbs 21:13; Proverbs 24:11-12.
And the fatherless - The orphan who brought his cause before him. He became the patron and protector of those whose natural protectors - their parents - had been removed by death; compare the notes at Isaiah 1:17.
And him that had none to help him - The poor man who had no powerful patron. Job says that, as a magistrate, he particularly regarded the cause of such persons, and saw that justice was done them - a beautiful image of the administration of justice in patriarchal times. This is the sense in which our translators understood this. But the parallelism seems rather to require that this should be applied to the fatherless who had no one to aid him, and the Hebrew, by understanding the ו (w) conjunctive as meaning "when," will bear this construction. So it is understood by Rosenmuller, Umbreit, Herder, and Noyes.

Because I delivered the poor that cried - This appears to be intended as a refutation of the charges produced by Eliphaz, Job 22:5-10, to confute which Job appeals to facts, and to public testimony.

Because I delivered the (i) poor that cried, and the fatherless, and [him that had] none to help him.
(i) Because his adversaries did so much charge him with wickedness, he is compelled to render account of his life.

Because I delivered the poor that cried,.... This honour and esteem he had not because of his grandeur and riches, because of his worldly wealth and substance, but because of the goodness of his disposition, and because of the good he did to men, his acts of pity and compassion to the poor, and of the justice he did to all men; the poor and the afflicted, when they cried to him for help, he delivered them out of the hands of their oppressors:
and the fatherless; the care and defence of which belongs to judges and civil magistrates, see Psalm 82:1;
and him that had none to help him; as the poor and fatherless seldom have; there is power on the side of the oppressors of them, but they have few or none to take their parts, and to be their comforters, Ecclesiastes 4:1; in these instances Job imitated God, and was a follower of him, as a dear child of his; who, when this and the other poor man cries unto him, he hears, saves, and delivers out of all their troubles; he is the helper, yea, the father of the fatherless, and the judge of the widow; and, when there is no help from men, he is a present help in times of need.

The grounds on which Job was praised (Job 29:11), his helping the afflicted (Psalm 72:12) who cried to him for help, as a judge, or as one possessed of means of charity. Translate: "The fatherless who had none to help him."