29 And Job continued his parable and said,
2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;
3 When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;
6 When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! …
7 When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,
8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up;
9 Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;
10 The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.
11 When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me, and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me;
12 For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.
13 The blessing of him that was perishing came upon 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 mantle and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame;
16 I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;
17 And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
18 And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;
19 My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch;
20 My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand.
21 Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel:
22 After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them;
23 And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
24 [If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance.
25 I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.