Job 29 A Lamentation of Job Remembering His First State

 Job 29

A Lamentation of Job Remembering His First State

1 Then Job continued his parable, and said:

2 Oh, that I were as I was in the months of old, as in the days when God preserved me!

3 When he made his lamp shine upon my head, and I walked by his light through darkness;

4 As in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tent;

5 When the Almighty was with me, and my children were round about me;

6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock ran down for me with streams of oil;

7 When I went out to the gate of the city, and prepared my seat in the street;

8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged rose up and stood;

9 The princes restrained their words, and laid their hands upon their mouths;

10 The voice of the rulers was hidden, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

11 When the ear heard me, it considered me blessed; when the eye saw me, it testified to me.

12 For I delivered the poor who cried out, and the fatherless who had no one to help him.

13 The blessing of him who was ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow's heart sing for joy.

14 I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a diadem.

15 I was an eye to the blind, and feet to the lame.

16 I was a father to the needy, and I searched out cases that I knew not.

17 I broke the jawbones of the wicked, and plucked the prey from his teeth. 

18 And I said, I will give up my life in my nest, and multiply my days like the sand.

19 My root spread out by the waters, and the dew sat upon my branches;

20 My glory was renewed in me, and my bow was strengthened in my hand.

21 They waited for me, and kept silent in my counsel.

22 When my word was finished, they did not answer, and my words dropped upon them.

23 For they waited for me as for the rain, and opened their mouths as for the late rain.

24 When I laughed at them, they did not believe it; they did not dim the light of my countenance.

25 When I chose their way, I sat as a captain, and dwelt as a king among their troops, as one who comforts those who mourn.