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Job’s Former Blessings

¹ And Job continued his discourse:² “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,³ when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,⁴ when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God rested on my tent,⁵ when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me,⁶ when my steps were bathed in cream and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷ When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew, and the old men rose to their feet.⁹ The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.¹⁰ The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.¹¹ For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,¹² because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.¹³ The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.¹⁵ I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame.¹⁶ I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.¹⁷ I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸ So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.¹⁹ My roots will spread out to the waters, and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.²⁰ My glory is ever new within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.²¹ Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my counsel.²² After my words, they spoke no more; my speech settled on them like dew.²³ They waited for me as for rain and drank in my words like spring showers.²⁴ If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.²⁵ I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.