Job 29

1 Job again took up his parable, 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 on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,⋮

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

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

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

7 when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.⋮

8 The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up 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 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me,⋮

12 because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,⋮

13 the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.⋮

14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.⋮

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

16 I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.⋮

17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.⋮

18 Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.⋮

19 My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.⋮

20 My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’⋮

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

22 After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.⋮

23 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.⋮

24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.⋮

25 I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.⋮