And Job continued his parable and said,
Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;
When his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;
As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,
When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;
When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! …
When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,
The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose and stood up;
Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;
The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.
When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me;
For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.
The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban.
I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame;
I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;
And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;
My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch;
My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand.
Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel:
After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them;
And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance.
I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.