¹Then Job again delivered a discourse on his part and said,

²“If only I were as in months past,

As in the days when God protected me,

³When he shone his light on my head,

When I walked by his light in darkness,

⁴When I was in my autumnal days,

With the secret counsel of God in my tent,

⁵When the Almighty was still with me,

When my children were round about me,

⁶When my steps were washed with buttermilk

And the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

⁷When I went out to the gate of the city,

And when I prepared my seat in the street.

⁸Young men would see me and make way for me,

And old men would rise and stand.

⁹Princes would hold back their words

And put their hand to their mouth.

¹⁰The voice of the governors would be hushed,

And their tongue would cleave to their palate.

¹¹For the ear that heard me would bless me,

And the eye that saw me would bear witness to me.

¹²For I delivered the poor who cried out,

And the orphan who had no-one to help him.

¹³The blessing for him who was dying would fall to me,

And I would cause the heart of the widow to rejoice.

¹⁴I put on righteousness,

And it clothed me;

My justice was as a coat and turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind,

And I was feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor,

And if there was a dispute

Which I did not know the details of,

I would investigate it.

¹⁷And I broke the incisors of the unjust,

And I plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

¹⁸And I said,

‘I will expire when my home does,

And multiply my days like the sand.’

¹⁹My root spread out to the water,

And dew lodged on my branch.

²⁰The honour I had was fresh,

And my bow in my hand was full of vitality.

²¹Men would listen to me and wait;

They would be silent for my advice.

²²After my words they did not differ with me,

And my words condensed on them.

²³And they waited for me as for rain,

And they would open their mouth as for the latter rain.

²⁴They had the certainty that I would not laugh at them,

And they would never depress my cheerfulness.

²⁵I chose their course of action for them,

And I sat as chief,

And I dwelt like a king among his troops,

And as one who comforts those who mourn.