Job 29

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

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

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

⁴as I was in my prime , when the friendship of God was upon my tent ,

⁵when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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