Job 29

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

as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone on my head,

and by his light I walked through darkness,

⁴as I was in my prime,

when the friendship of God was in my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was yet with me,

and my children were around me,

⁶when my steps were washed with butter,

and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

⁷when I went out to the city gate,

when I prepared my seat in the street.

⁸The young men saw me and hid themselves.

The aged rose up 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.

¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me,

and when the eye saw me, it commended me,

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried,

and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

¹³the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,

and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.

My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind,

and feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy.

I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of the unrighteous

and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house,

I will count my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters.

The dew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰My glory is fresh in me.

My bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me, waited,

and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they didn’t speak again.

My speech fell on them.

²³They waited for me as for the rain.

Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence.

They didn’t reject the light of my face.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat as chief.

I lived as a king in the army,

as one who comforts the mourners.