CHAPTER 29
1 And Job again took up his theme and he said:
2Would that I were as in moons of yore,
as the days when God watched over me,
3 when He shone his lamp over my head,
by its light I walked in darkness,
4as I was in the days of my prime—
5when Shaddai still was with me,
6when my feet bathed in curds
and the rock poured out streams of oil,
7when I went out to the city’s gate,
in the square I secured my seat.
8Lads saw me and took cover,
the aged arose, stood up.
9Noblemen held back their words,
their palm they put to their mouth.
10The voice of the princes was muffled,
their tongue to their palate stuck.
11When the ear heard, it affirmed me,
and the eye saw and acclaimed me.
12For I would free the poor who cried out,
the orphan with no one to help him.
13The perishing man’s blessing would reach me,
and the widow’s heart I made sing.
14Righteousness I donned and it clothed me,
like a cloak and a headdress, my justice.
15Eyes I became for the blind,
and legs for the lame I was.
16A father I was for the impoverished,
a stranger’s cause I took up.
17And I cracked the wrongdoer’s jaws,
from his teeth I would wrench the prey.
18And I thought: In my nest I shall breathe my last,
and my days will abound like the sand.
19My root will be open to water,
and dew in my branches abide,
20my glory renewed within me,
and my bow ever fresh in my hand.
21To me they would listen awaiting
and fall silent at my advice.
22 At my speech they would say nothing further,
and upon them my word would drop.
23They waited for me as for rain,
and gaped open their mouths as for showers.
24 I laughed to them—they scarcely trusted—
but my face’s light they did not dim.
25I chose their way and sat as chief,
I dwelled like a king in his brigade when he comforts the mourning.