CPDV - Job - 29

29:1  Job also added to this, using figures of speech, and he said:

29:2  Who will grant to me that I might be as I was in former months, according to the days when God kept watch over me?

29:3  At that time, his lamp shined over my head, and by his light, I walked through the darkness.

29:4  I was then just as in the days of my youth, when God was privately in my tabernacle.

29:5  At that time, the Almighty was with me and my children surrounded me.

29:6  Then, I washed my feet with butter, and a boulder poured out rivers of oil for me.

29:7  When I went to the gate of the city, or to the main street, they prepared a chair for me.

29:8  The youths saw me and hid themselves, and the elders, rising up, remained standing.

29:9  The leaders stopped talking, and they placed a finder over their mouth.

29:10  The commanders subdued their voice, and their tongue adhered to their throat.

29:11  The ear that heard me, blessed me, and the eye that saw me, gave testimony for me.

29:12  This was because I had freed the poor, who cried out, and the orphan, who had no helper.

29:13  The blessing of him who would have been destroyed came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow.

29:14  I put on justice, and I clothed myself with my judgment, like a robe and a diadem.

29:15  I was an eye for the blind and a foot for the lame.

29:16  I was the father of the poor; and if I lacked knowledge about any case, I investigated very diligently.

29:17  I crushed the jaws of the impious, and I took away prey from his teeth.

29:18  And I said, “I will die in my little nest, and like a palm tree, I will multiply my days.

29:19  My root has been spread beside the waters, and the dew will remain with my harvest.

29:20  My glory will always be restored, and my bow will be restored to my hand.”

29:21  Those who heard me, expected vindication, and they listened closely in silence to my counsel.

29:22  To my words, they dared to add nothing, and my eloquence poured over them.

29:23  They waited for me as for rain, and they opened their mouth as for belated rains.

29:24  If I had ever laughed at them, they would not have believed it, and the light of my face was not cast down towards the ground.

29:25  If I wished to go to them, I sat down first, and, though I sat like a king surrounded by an army, yet I was a comforter to those who mourned.