| 1 | Job also added to this, using figures of speech, and he said: |
| 2 | Who will grant to me that I might be as I was in former months, according to the days when God kept watch over me? |
| 3 | At that time, his lamp shined over my head, and by his light, I walked through the darkness. |
| 4 | I was then just as in the days of my youth, when God was privately in my tabernacle. |
| 5 | At that time, the Almighty was with me and my children surrounded me. |
| 6 | Then, I washed my feet with butter, and a boulder poured out rivers of oil for me. |
| 7 | When I went to the gate of the city, or to the main street, they prepared a chair for me. |
| 8 | The youths saw me and hid themselves, and the elders, rising up, remained standing. |
| 9 | The leaders stopped talking, and they placed a finder over their mouth. |
| 10 | The commanders subdued their voice, and their tongue adhered to their throat. |
| 11 | The ear that heard me, blessed me, and the eye that saw me, gave testimony for me. |
| 12 | This was because I had freed the poor, who cried out, and the orphan, who had no helper. |
| 13 | The blessing of him who would have been destroyed came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow. |
| 14 | I put on justice, and I clothed myself with my judgment, like a robe and a diadem. |
| 15 | I was an eye for the blind and a foot for the lame. |
| 16 | I was the father of the poor; and if I lacked knowledge about any case, I investigated very diligently. |
| 17 | I crushed the jaws of the impious, and I took away prey from his teeth. |
| 18 | And I said, "I will die in my little nest, and like a palm tree, I will multiply my days. |
| 19 | My root has been spread beside the waters, and the dew will remain with my harvest. |
| 20 | My glory will always be restored, and my bow will be restored to my hand." |
| 21 | Those who heard me, expected vindication, and they listened closely in silence to my counsel. |
| 22 | To my words, they dared to add nothing, and my eloquence poured over them. |
| 23 | They waited for me as for rain, and they opened their mouth as for belated rains. |
| 24 | If I had ever laughed at them, they would not have believed it, and the light of my face was not cast down towards the ground. |
| 25 | If I wished to go to them, I sat down first, and, though I sat like a king surrounded by an army, yet I was a comforter to whose who mourned. |
