Job 29

Job’s Former Blessings

¹And Job continued his discourse:

²“How I long for the months gone by,

for the days when God watched over me,

³when His lamp shone above my head,

and by His light I walked through the darkness,

⁴when I was in my prime,

when the friendship of God rested on my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was still with me

and my children were around me,

⁶when my steps were bathed in cream

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the city gate

and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the old men rose to their feet.

⁹The princes refrained from speaking

and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed,

and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹For those who heard me called me blessed,

and those who saw me commended me,

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried out

and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹³The dying man blessed me,

and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

justice was my robe and my turban.1

¹⁵I served as eyes to the blind

and as feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy,

and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust

and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest

and multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My roots will spread out to the waters,

and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.

²⁰My glory is ever new within me,

and my bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹Men listened to me with expectation,

waiting silently for my counsel.

²²After my words, they spoke no more;

my speech settled on them like dew.

²³They waited for me as for rain

and drank in my words like spring showers.

²⁴If I smiled at them, they did not believe it;

the light of my countenance was precious.

²⁵I chose their course and presided as chief.

So I dwelt as a king among his troops,

as a comforter of the mourners.