¹ Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

² Oh that I were as in months past,
As in the days when God preserved me;
³ When his candle shined upon my head,
And when by his light I walked through darkness;
⁴ As I was in the days of my youth,
When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
⁵ When the Almighty was yet with me,
When my children were about me;
⁶ When I washed my steps with butter,
And the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

⁷ When I went out to the gate through the city,
When I prepared my seat in the street!
⁸ The young men saw me, and hid themselves:
And the aged arose, and stood up.
⁹ The princes refrained talking,
And laid their hand on their mouth.
¹⁰ The nobles held their peace,
And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
¹¹ When the ear heard me, then it blessed me;
And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
¹² Because I delivered the poor that cried,
And the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
¹³ The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me:
And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:
My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind,
And feet was I to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the poor:
And the cause which I knew not I searched out.
¹⁷ And I brake the jaws of the wicked,
And plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
¹⁸ Then I said, I shall die in my nest,
And I shall multiply my days as the sand.
¹⁹ My root was spread out by the waters,
And the dew lay all night upon my branch.
²⁰ My glory was fresh in me,
And my bow was renewed in my hand.

²¹ Unto me men gave ear, and waited,
And kept silence at my counsel.
²² After my words they spake not again;
And my speech dropped upon them.
²³ And they waited for me as for the rain;
And they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
²⁴ If I laughed on them, they believed it not;
And the light of my countenance they cast not down.
²⁵ I chose out their way, and sat chief,
And dwelt as a king in the army,
As one that comforteth the mourners.