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Job Finishes His Defence

29Job again took up his discourse and said:
² ‘O that I were as in the months of old,
   as in the days when God watched over me;
³ when his lamp shone over my head,
   and by his light I walked through darkness;
⁴ when I was in my prime,
   when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
⁵ when the Almighty^* was still with me,
   when my children were around me;
⁶ when my steps were washed with milk,
   and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city,
   when I took my seat in the square,
⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew,
   and the aged rose up and stood;
⁹ the nobles refrained from talking,
   and laid their hands on their mouths;
¹⁰ the voices of princes were hushed,
   and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
¹¹ When the ear heard, it commended me,
   and when the eye saw, it approved;
¹² because I delivered the poor who cried,
   and the orphan who had no helper.
¹³ The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
   and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
   my justice was like a robe and a turban.
¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind,
   and feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy,
   and I championed the cause of the stranger.
¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the unrighteous,
   and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
¹⁸ Then I thought, “I shall die in my nest,
   and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix;^*
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
   with the dew all night on my branches;
²⁰ my glory was fresh with me,
   and my bow ever new in my hand.”

²¹ ‘They listened to me, and waited,
   and kept silence for my counsel.
²² After I spoke they did not speak again,
   and my word dropped upon them like dew.^*
23 They waited for me as for the rain;
   they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
²⁴ I smiled on them when they had no confidence;
   and the light of my countenance they did not extinguish.^*
25 I chose their way, and sat as chief,
   and I lived like a king among his troops,
   like one who comforts mourners.