Job 29

Job also added to this, using figures of speech, and he said:

Who will grant to me that I might be as I was in former months, according to the days when God kept watch over me?

At that time, his lamp shined over my head, and by his light, I walked through the darkness.

I was then just as in the days of my youth, when God was privately in my tabernacle.

At that time, the Almighty was with me and my children surrounded me.

Then, I washed my feet with butter, and a boulder poured out rivers of oil for me.

When I went to the gate of the city, or to the main street, they prepared a chair for me.

The youths saw me and hid themselves, and the elders, rising up, remained standing.

The leaders stopped talking, and they placed a finder over their mouth.

The commanders subdued their voice, and their tongue adhered to their throat.

The ear that heard me, blessed me, and the eye that saw me, gave testimony for me.

This was because I had freed the poor, who cried out, and the orphan, who had no helper.

The blessing of him who would have been destroyed came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow.

I put on justice, and I clothed myself with my judgment, like a robe and a diadem.

I was an eye for the blind and a foot for the lame.

I was the father of the poor; and if I lacked knowledge about any case, I investigated very diligently.

I crushed the jaws of the impious, and I took away prey from his teeth.

And I said, "I will die in my little nest, and like a palm tree, I will multiply my days.

My root has been spread beside the waters, and the dew will remain with my harvest.

My glory will always be restored, and my bow will be restored to my hand."

Those who heard me, expected vindication, and they listened closely in silence to my counsel.

To my words, they dared to add nothing, and my eloquence poured over them.

They waited for me as for rain, and they opened their mouth as for belated rains.

If I had ever laughed at them, they would not have believed it, and the light of my face was not cast down towards the ground.

If I wished to go to them, I sat down first, and, though I sat like a king surrounded by an army, yet I was a comforter to those who mourned.