Job 29

¹ And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

² "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

³ when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴ as I was in my autumn days, when the friendship of God was upon my tent;

⁵ when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

⁶ when my steps were washed with milk, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,

⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;

⁹ the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰ the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹ When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved;

¹² because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him.

¹³ The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

¹⁶ I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

¹⁸ Then I thought, 'I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

¹⁹ my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,

²⁰ my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.'

²¹ "Men listened to me, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

²² After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.

²³ They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

²⁴ I smiled on them when they had no confidence; and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.

²⁵ I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I dwelt like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.