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¹ And Job continued the lifting up of his discourse, and said:² Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God watched over me;³ when His lamp shone on my head, when I walked through darkness by His light;⁴ as I was in the days of my harvest, when the intimacy with God was on my tent;⁵ when the Almighty was yet with me and my children were around me;⁶ when I washed my steps with curds, and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me;

⁷ when I went out to the gate by the city; when I prepared my seat in the street.⁸ The young men saw me and hid themselves; the aged rose up, stood up;⁹ the rulers held back with words, and they laid a hand on their mouth;¹⁰ the leaders' voice was hidden; yea, their tongue clung to the roof of their mouth.¹¹ For the ear heard, and blessed me; and the eye saw, and witnessed for me.¹² For I delivered the poor who cried for help and the orphan who had no helper to him.¹³ The blessing of the perishing came on me; and I made the widow's heart to sing.¹⁴ I put on righteousness and it clothed me; my judgment was like a robe and a diadem.¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.¹⁶ I was father to the poor, and the cause which I did not know, I searched out.¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the perverse, and cast the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸ Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply days like the sand.¹⁹ My root was open to the waters, and the dew lay all night on my branch.²⁰ My glory was fresh with me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.²¹ They listened to me and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.²² After my words, they did not go on, and my speech dropped on them.²³ And they waited for me like the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.²⁴ I laughed on those when they did not believe, and they did not make the light of my face to fall.²⁵ I chose out their way, and sat as chief; and I lived like a king among the troops; as the mourners, and he who comforts.