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 over my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,

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

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

⁶ when my steps were washed with butter,
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 stuck to the roof of their mouth.

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

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

¹³ The blessing of the perishing 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 the one I did not know.

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

¹⁸ Then I said: '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 ever fresh with me,
and my bow always 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;
the light of my face they did not cast down.

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