¹And Job continued his parable and said,

²Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;[#Hebrew: Eloah]

³When his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,[#Hebrew: Eloah]

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;

⁶When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ...

⁷When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,

⁸The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose and stood up;

⁹Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;

¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.

¹¹When the ear heard me , then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me , it gave witness to me;

¹²For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹³The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame;

¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;

¹⁷And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

¹⁸And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;

¹⁹My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch;

²⁰My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand.

²¹Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel:

²²After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them;

²³And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

²⁴If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance.

²⁵I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.