Chapter 29

  Job again took up his parable, and said,  

  'Oh that I were as in the months of old, As in the days when God watched over me;  

  When his lamp shone on my head, And by his light I walked through darkness;  

  As I was in the ripeness of my days, When the friendship of God was in my tent;  

  When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were around me;  

  When my steps were washed with butter, And the rock poured out streams of oil for me!  

  When I went forth to the city gate, When I prepared my seat in the street,  

  The young men saw me and hid themselves, The aged rose up and stood;  

  The princes refrained from talking, And laid their hand on their mouth;  

  The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.  

  For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me, it commended me:  

  Because I delivered the poor who cried, And the fatherless also, who had none to help him.  

  The blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.  

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

  I was eyes to the blind, And feet to the lame.  

  I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn't know, I searched out.  

  I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, And plucked the prey out of his teeth.  

  Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.  

  My root is spread out to the waters, The dew lies all night on my branch;  

  My glory is fresh in me, My bow is renewed in my hand.'  

  'Men listened to me, waited, And kept silence for my counsel.  

  After my words they didn't speak again; My speech fell on them.  

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

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

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