Job 29

¹ And Job addeth to lift up his simile, and saith: —

² Who doth make me as [in] months past, As [in] the days of God’s preserving me?

³ In His causing His lamp to shine on my head, By His light I walk [through] darkness.

⁴ As I have been in days of my maturity, And the counsel of God upon my tent.

⁵ When yet the Mighty One [is] with me. Round about me — my young ones,

⁶ When washing my goings with butter, And the firm rock [is] with me rivulets of oil.

⁷ When I go out to the gate by the city, In a broad place I prepare my seat.

⁸ Seen me have youths, and they, been hidden, And the aged have risen — they stood up.

⁹ Princes have kept in words, And a hand they place on their mouth.

¹⁰ The voice of leaders hath been hidden, And their tongue to the palate hath cleaved.

¹¹ For the ear heard, and declareth me happy, And the eye hath seen, and testifieth [to] me.

¹² For I deliver the afflicted who is crying, And the fatherless who hath no helper.

¹³ The blessing of the perishing cometh on me, And the heart of the widow I cause to sing.

¹⁴ Righteousness I have put on, and it clotheth me, As a robe and a diadem my justice.

¹⁵ Eyes I have been to the blind, And feet to the lame [am] I.

¹⁶ A father I [am] to the needy, And the cause I have not known I search out.

¹⁷ And I break the jaw-teeth of the perverse, And from his teeth I cast away prey.

¹⁸ And I say, ‘With my nest I expire, And as the sand I multiply days.’

¹⁹ My root is open unto the waters, And dew doth lodge on my branch.

²⁰ My honour [is] fresh with me, And my bow in my hand is renewed.

²¹ To me they have hearkened, Yea, they wait, and are silent for my counsel.

²² After my word they change not, And on them doth my speech drop,

²³ And they wait as [for] rain for me, And their mouth they have opened wide [As] for the latter rain.

²⁴ I laugh unto them — they give no credence, And the light of my face cause not to fall.

²⁵ I choose their way, and sit head, And I dwell as a king in a troop, When mourners he doth comfort.