Job 29:2-25
Oh that I were as[ in] months past, as[ in] the days[ when] God preserved me;When his candle shined upon my head,[ and when] by his light I walked[ through] darkness;As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God[ was] upon my tabernacle;When the Almighty[ was] yet with me,[ when] my children[ were] about me;When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;When I went out to the gate through the city,[ when] I prepared my seat in the street!The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose,[ and] stood up.The princes refrained talking, and laid[ their] hand on their mouth.The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.When the ear heard[ me], then it blessed me; and when the eye saw[ me], it gave witness to me:Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and[ him that had] none to help him.The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment[ was] as a robe and a diadem.I was eyes to the blind, and feet[ was] I to the lame.I[ was] a father to the poor: and the cause[ which] I knew not I searched out.And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply[ my] days as the sand.My root[ was] spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.My glory[ was] fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.Unto me[ men] gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide[ as] for the latter rain.[ If] I laughed on them, they believed[ it] not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one[ that] comforteth the mourners.
