The Book of Job (WEB)

29: 1Job again took up his parable, and said,

 ^29:2"Oh that I were as in the months of old,
      As in the days when God watched over me;

 ^29:3When his lamp shone on my head,
      And by his light I walked through darkness;

 ^29:4As I was in the ripeness of my days,
      When the friendship of God was in my tent;

 ^29:5When the Almighty was yet with me,
      And my children were around me;

 ^29:6When my steps were washed with butter,
      And the rock poured out streams of oil for me!

 ^29:7When I went forth to the city gate,
      When I prepared my seat in the street,

 ^29:8The young men saw me and hid themselves,
      The aged rose up and stood;

 ^29:9The princes refrained from talking,
      And laid their hand on their mouth;

 ^29:10The voice of the nobles was hushed,
      And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

 ^29:11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me;
      And when the eye saw me, it commended me:

 ^29:12Because I delivered the poor who cried,
      And the fatherless also, who had none to help him.

 ^29:13The blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,
      And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

 ^29:14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.
      My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

 ^29:15I was eyes to the blind,
      And feet to the lame.

 ^29:16I was a father to the needy.
      The cause of him who I didn't know, I searched out.

 ^29:17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous,
      And plucked the prey out of his teeth.

 ^29:18Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house,
      I shall number my days as the sand.

 ^29:19My root is spread out to the waters,
      The dew lies all night on my branch;

 ^29:20My glory is fresh in me,
      My bow is renewed in my hand.'

  ^29:21"Men listened to me, waited,
      And kept silence for my counsel.

 ^29:22After my words they didn't speak again;
      My speech fell on them.

 ^29:23They waited for me as for the rain.
      Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

 ^29:24I smiled on them when they had no confidence.
      They didn't reject the light of my face.

 ^29:25I chose out their way, and sat as chief.
      I lived as a king in the army,
      As one who comforts the mourners.

World English Bible