29:1 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
29:2 "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;
29:3 when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;
29:4 as I was in my autumn days, when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
29:5 when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
29:6 when my steps were washed with milk, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
29:7 When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
29:8 the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
29:9 the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth;
29:10 the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
29:11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved;
29:12 because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
29:13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.
29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
29:16 I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
29:17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
29:18 Then I thought, `I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
29:19 my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,
29:20 my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.'
29:21 "Men listened to me, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
29:22 After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.
29:23 They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
29:24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence; and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
29:25 I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I dwelt like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.
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