| 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 forth 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 none 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. |
