Job 29

¹Job also added to this, using figures of speech, and he said

²Who will grant to me that I might be as I was in former months, according to the days when God kept watch over me

³At that time, his lamp shined over my head, and by his light, I walked through the darkness

⁴I was then just as in the days of my youth, when God was privately in my tabernacle

⁵At that time, the Almighty was with me and my children surrounded me

⁶Then, I washed my feet with butter, and a boulder poured out rivers of oil for me

⁷When I went to the gate of the city, or to the main street, they prepared a chair for me

⁸The youths saw me and hid themselves, and the elders, rising up, remained standing

⁹The leaders stopped talking, and they placed a finder over their mouth

¹⁰The commanders subdued their voice, and their tongue adhered to their throat

¹¹The ear that heard me, blessed me, and the eye that saw me, gave testimony for me

¹²This was because I had freed the poor, who cried out, and the orphan, who had no helper

¹³The blessing of him who would have been destroyed came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow

¹⁴I put on justice, and I clothed myself with my judgment, like a robe and a diadem

¹⁵I was an eye for the blind and a foot for the lame

¹⁶I was the father of the poor; and if I lacked knowledge about any case, I investigated very diligently

¹⁷I crushed the jaws of the impious, and I took away prey from his teeth

¹⁸And I said, “I will die in my little nest, and like a palm tree, I will multiply my days

¹⁹My root has been spread beside the waters, and the dew will remain with my harvest

²⁰My glory will always be restored, and my bow will be restored to my hand.

²¹Those who heard me, expected vindication, and they listened closely in silence to my counsel

²²To my words, they dared to add nothing, and my eloquence poured over them

²³They waited for me as for rain, and they opened their mouth as for belated rains

²⁴If 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

²⁵If 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