Job, 29

1. And Job continued his solemn discourse. He said:

1. Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

2. Will no one bring back to me the months that have gone, and the days when God was my guardian,

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 his light was my guide in the darkness?

3. When his candle shined upon my head, [and when] by his light I walked [through] darkness;

4. Shall I ever see my days of harvest again when God protected my tent;

4. As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God [was] upon my tabernacle;

5. when Shaddai still dwelt with me, and my children were around me;

5. When the Almighty [was] yet with me, [when] my children [were] about me;

6. when my feet were bathed in milk, and streams of oil poured from the rocks?

6. When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

7. When I went out to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the square,

7. When I went out to the gate through the city, [when] I prepared my seat in the street!

8. as soon as I appeared, the young men stepped aside, and the old men rose to their feet.

8. The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, [and] stood up.

9. Men of note broke off their speeches, and put their hands over their mouths;

9. The princes refrained talking, and laid [their] hand on their mouth.

10. the voices of rulers were silenced, and their tongues stayed still in their mouths.

10. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

11. On hearing me, people congratulated me, on seeing me, people deferred to me,

11. When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me; and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me:

12. because I freed the poor in distress and the orphan who had no helper.

12. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and [him that had] none to help him.

13. The dying man's blessing rested on me and I gave the widow's heart cause to rejoice.

13. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

14. Uprightness I wore as a garment, fair judgement was my cloak and my turban.

14. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment [was] as a robe and a diadem.

15. I was eyes for the blind, and feet for the lame.

15. I was eyes to the blind, and feet [was] I to the lame.

16. Who but me was father of the poor? The stranger's case had a hearing from me.

16. I [was] a father to the poor: and the cause [which] I knew not I searched out.

17. I used to break the fangs of the wicked, and snatch their prey from their jaws.

17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

18. And I used to say, 'I shall die in honour, after days as numerous as the sand.

18. Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply [my] days as the sand.

19. My roots can reach the water, the dews of night settle on my leaves.

19. My root [was] spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

20. My glory will be for ever new and the bow in my hand for ever strong.'

20. My glory [was] fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

21. They waited anxiously to hear me, and listened in silence to what I had to say.

21. Unto me [men] gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

22. When I had finished, no one contradicted, my words dropping on them, one by one.

22. After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

23. They waited for me as though for rain, open-mouthed as though for a late shower.

23. And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide [as] for the latter rain.

24. If I smiled at them, it was too good to be true, they watched my face for the least sign of favour.

24. [If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

25. As their chief, I told them which course to take, like a king living among his troops, and I led them wherever I chose.

25. I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one [that] comforteth the mourners.