[1] Job again took up his parable, and said,
[2] “Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;
[3] when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
[4] as I was in the ripeness of my days, when the friendship of God was in my tent,
[5] when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,
[6] when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
[7] when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.
[8] The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.
[9] The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
[10] The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
[11] For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it commended me:
[12] Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
[13] the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
[14] I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
[15] I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
[16] I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out.
[17] I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
[18] Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.
[19] My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.
[20] My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’
[21] “Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
[22] After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.
[23] They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
[24] I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.
[25] I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.