Old Testament · Poetry and wisdom
Job chapter 29
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Job picked up his again and said:If I could only have back the months that are gone,
the days when God kept watch over me —when burned above my head
and I walked through the dark by his light;back when I was in my prime,
when God’s sat over my tent,while was still with me
and my children were all around me;when my steps were washed in cream
and for me;When I walked out to
and took my seat in the open square,the young men saw me and stepped back,
and the old men got to their feet and stood.The officials stopped in the middle of a sentence
and .The voices of the leading men dropped away,
and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.Any ear that heard me called me a good man.
Any eye that saw me .Because I got the poor man out when he screamed for help,
and the orphan, who had no one at all.The dying man’s came down on me,
and I set the widow’s heart singing.I put on , and it wore me.
was my robe and my turban.I was eyes for the blind man
and feet for the man who could not walk.I was a father to people who had nothing.
A stranger’s lawsuit — I dug into it until I understood it.I of the crooked man
and tore what he had caught out of his teeth.So I thought: I will die in my own nest,
with days piled up like .My roots reach open water,
and the dew stays all night in my branches.My stays new on me,
and the bow in my hand keeps finding its spring.People listened to me and waited.
They went silent for my advice.After I spoke, no one added anything.
My words fell on them like rain.They waited for me the way a field waits for rain,
mouths open for .When I smiled at them they could hardly believe it,
and they never let the light of my face fall.I chose the road for them and sat at the head of the table.
I lived like a king among his troops,
like a man who walks in and comforts the grieving.