Job 29

²“O that I were as in the months of old,

as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone over my head,

and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴when I was in my prime,

when the friendship of God was upon my tent;

⁵when the Almighty was still with me,

when my children were around me;

⁶when my steps were washed with milk,

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the gate of the city,

when I took my seat in the square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the aged rose up and stood;

⁹the nobles refrained from talking,

and laid their hands on their mouths;

¹⁰the voices of princes were hushed,

and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹When the ear heard, it commended me,

and when the eye saw, it approved;

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried,

and the orphan who had no helper.

¹³The blessing of the wretched 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 championed the cause of the stranger.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of the unrighteous,

and made them drop their prey from their teeth.

¹⁸Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix;

¹⁹my roots spread out to the waters,

with the dew all night on my branches;

²⁰my glory was fresh with me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

²¹“They 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 like dew.

²³They waited for me as for the rain;

they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence;

and the light of my countenance they did not extinguish.

²⁵I chose their way, and sat as chief,

and I lived like a king among his troops,

like one who comforts mourners.