Job 29

¹And Job continued his discourse:

²“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,

³when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,

⁴when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God rested on my tent,

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

⁶when my steps were bathed in cream and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew, and the old men rose to their feet.

⁹The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹³The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My roots will spread out to the waters, and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.

²⁰My glory is ever new within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my counsel.

²²After my words, they spoke no more; my speech settled on them like dew.