Job 29

¹And 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,

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.

¹³ The 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.

¹⁸ Then 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.’

²¹“Men 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.

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