The Preacher's Bible

Job again took up his parable, and said,

²“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

⁴as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,

⁶when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

⁷when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.

⁸The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.

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

¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me,

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

¹³the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

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

¹⁶I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.

²³They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.