29:1  And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

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

29:3  when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

29:4  as I was in my autumn days, when the friendship of God was upon my tent;

29:5  when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

29:6  when my steps were washed with milk, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

29:7  When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,

29:8  the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;

29:9  the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth;

29:10  the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

29:11  When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved;

29:12  because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him.

29:13  The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

29:14  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.

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

29:16  I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

29:17  I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

29:18  Then I thought, 'I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

29:19  my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,

29:20  my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.'

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

29:22  After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.

29:23  They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

29:24  I smiled on them when they had no confidence; and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.

29:25  I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I dwelt like a king among his troops, like one who comforts