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📚✭And Job continued his discourse and said, 2 📚✭“Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God was watching over me, 3 📚When his lamp shone on my head, when I walked through darkness by his light;
4 📚As I was in the days of my prime, when God’s nearness remained over my tent,
5 📚When the Almighty was still with me, when my children were around me,
6 📚When my steps were washed in cream, and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me,
7 📚✭When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the square.
8 📚The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood.
9 📚The princes stopped talking and put their hand on their mouth.
10 📚The nobles kept silent and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Job makes known his way of life
11 📚When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it showed approval of me,
12 📚✭Because I rescued the poor who cried out, and the fatherless, and the one who had no helper.
13 📚Words of blessing came on me from those who had been about to perish, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 📚I dressed myself in righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 📚I was eyes for the blind, and feet for the lame.
16 📚I was a father to the poor, and investigated the case I did not know.
17 📚And I broke the jaws of the wicked and snatched the plunder out of his teeth.
18 📚✭“Then I said, ‘I will die in my nest, and cause my days to be as numerous as the sand.
19 📚My roots are spread out by the waters, and the dew lies all night on my branches.
20 📚My glory remains fresh in me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.’
21 📚✭“People listened to me and waited, and kept silent for my counsel.
22 📚After my words they did not speak again; and my words dropped on them.
23 📚And they waited for me as for the rain, and opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
24 📚If I laughed at them, they did not believe it; and they did not cause the light of my face to fail✭.
25 📚I chose the way for them, and sat as chief. I dwelt like a king among his army, like one who comforts mourners.