| 1 | And Job continued his parable and said, |
| 2 | Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me; |
| 3 | When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness; |
| 4 | As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent, |
| 5 | When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me; |
| 6 | When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ... |
| 7 | When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway, |
| 8 | The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up; |
| 9 | Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth; |
| 10 | The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate. |
| 11 | When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me, and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me; |
| 12 | For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper. |
| 13 | The blessing of him that was perishing came upon 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 mantle and a turban. |
| 15 | I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; |
| 16 | I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out; |
| 17 | And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. |
| 18 | And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand; |
| 19 | My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch; |
| 20 | My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand. |
| 21 | Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel: |
| 22 | After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them; |
| 23 | And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. |
| 24 | [If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance. |
| 25 | I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners. |
