Chapter 29

Job’s Past Was Glorious

1 And Job again took up his adiscourse and said,

2 “Oh that I were as in months gone by,

As in the days when God awatched over me;

3 When aHis lamp shone over my head,

And bby His light I walked through darkness;

4 As I was in 1the prime of my days,

When the 2afriendship of God was over my tent;

5 When 1the Almighty was yet with me,

And my children were around me;

6 When my steps were bathed in abutter,

And the brock poured out for me streams of oil!

7 “When I went out to athe gate of the city,

When I 1took my seat in the square,

8 The young men saw me and hid themselves,

And the old men arose and stood.

9 “The princes astopped talking

And bput their hands on their mouths;

10 The voice of the nobles was 1ahushed,

And their btongue stuck to their palate.

11 “For when athe ear heard, it called me blessed,

And when the eye saw, it gave witness of me,

12 Because I delivered athe poor who cried for help,

And the borphan who had no helper.

13 “The blessing of the one aready to perish came upon me,

And I made the bwidow’s heart sing for joy.

14 “I aput on righteousness, and it clothed me;

My justice was like a robe and a turban.

15 “I was aeyes to the blind

And feet to the lame.

16 “I was a father to athe needy,

And I investigated the case which I did not know.

17 “I abroke the jaws of the wicked

And snatched the prey from his teeth.

18 “Then I 1thought, ‘I shall die 2in my nest,

And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

19 ‘My aroot is spread out to the waters,

And bdew lies all night on my branch.

20 ‘My glory is ever new with me,

And my abow is renewed in my hand.’

21 “To me athey listened and waited,

And kept silent for my counsel.

22 “After my words they did not aspeak again,

And bmy speech dropped on them.

23 “They waited for me as for the rain,

And opened their mouth as for the spring rain.

24 “I smiled on them when they did not believe,

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

25 “I chose a way for them and sat as achief,

And dwelt as a king among the troops,

As one who bcomforted the mourners.