Job bemoans his former prosperity.

29:1 Job 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;

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

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

29:5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
and my children were around me,

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

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

29:8 The young men saw me and hid themselves.
The aged rose up 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 stuck to the roof of their mouth.

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

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

29:13 the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on 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 as a robe and a diadem.

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

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

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

29:18 Then I said,

‘I shall die in my own house,
I shall number my days as the sand.

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

29:20 My 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.

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

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

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

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