Job’s Former Blessings

1And Job continued to lift up his discourse, and he said,

2“Who will make me as in months past,

as the days when God was keeping me?

3In His lamp shining upon my head,

by His light I walked through darkness,

4as I was in the days of my harvest time,†

when the counsel of God was upon my tent,

5when yet Shaddai† was with me,

my children around me,

6with the washing of my steps with cream,

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

7Or in my going out to the gate upon the town,

in the square I established my seat;

8the young men saw me and hid themselves,

and old men arose and stood;

9the princes refrained from words,

and they put a hand on their mouth;

10the voice of the nobles was hidden,

and their tongue stuck to their palate.

11For the ear heard and declared me blessed,

and the eye saw and testified for me,

12because I rescued the poor crying out,

and the fatherless, and no one was helping him.

13The blessing of the one perishing came upon me,

and the heart of the widow I caused to sing.

14I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me;

like a robe and a turban was my justice.

15I was eyes to the blind,

and I was feet to the lame.

16I was a father to the poor,

and the case I did not know, I searched it out.

17And I broke the fangs of the unjust,

and I cast away the prey from his teeth.

18So I said, ‘In my nest I will die,

I will multiply my days as the sand.

19My root is open to the waters,

and the dew lodges on my branch.

20My glory is fresh within me,

and my bow in my hand is renewed.’

21They listened to me and waited,

and they kept silent for my counsel.

22After my word, they did not speak again,

and my speech dripped upon them.

23And they waited for me as for the rain,

and their mouth they opened wide, as for the spring rain.

24I smiled at them, and they could not believe it,

and the light of my face they did not let fall.

25I chose their path and sat as chief,

and I dwelt as a king with his band,

like one who comforts the mourners.