Job 29

Job’s Summary Defense

29Job further continued his discourse, and said:

²“Oh, that I were as in months ^apast,

As in the days when God ^bwatched over me;

^3cWhen His lamp shone upon my head,

And when by His light I walked through darkness;

⁴Just as I was in the days of my prime,

When ^dthe friendly counsel of God was over my tent;

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me,

When my children were around me;

⁶When ^emy steps were bathed with ¹cream,

And ^fthe rock poured out rivers of oil for me!

⁷“When I went out to the gate by the city,

When I took my seat in the open square,

⁸The young men saw me and hid,

And the aged arose and stood;

⁹The princes refrained from talking,

And ^gput their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰The voice of nobles was hushed,

And their ^htongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard, then it blessed me,

And when the eye saw, then it approved me;

¹²Because ⁱI delivered the poor who cried out,

The fatherless and the one who had no helper.

¹³The blessing of a perishing man came upon me,

And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

^14jI put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

My justice was like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵I was ^keyes to the blind,

And I was feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor,

And ^lI searched out the case that I did not know.

¹⁷I broke ^mthe fangs of the wicked,

And plucked the victim from his teeth.

¹⁸“Then I said, ⁿ‘I shall die in my nest,

And multiply my days as the sand.

^19oMy root is spread out ^pto the waters,

And the dew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰My glory is fresh within me,

And my ^qbow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me and waited,

And kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they did not speak again,

And my speech settled on them as dew.

²³They waited for me as for the rain,

And they opened their mouth wide as for ^rthe spring rain.

²⁴If I mocked at them, they did not believe it,

And the light of my countenance they did not cast down.

²⁵I chose the way for them, and sat as chief;

So I dwelt as a king in the army,

As one who comforts mourners.