Chapter 29

 And Job continued his parable and said, 

 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me; 

 When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness; 

 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent, 

 When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me; 

 When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ... 

 When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway, 

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

 Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth; 

 The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate. 

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

 For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper. 

 The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. 

 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban. 

 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; 

 I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out; 

 And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. 

 And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand; 

 My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch; 

 My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand. 

 Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel: 

 After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them; 

 And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. 

 [If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance. 

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