1  And 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 lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness; 4  As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of †God was over my tent, 5 When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me; 6 When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ... 7  When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway, 8  The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up; 9  Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth; 10  The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate. 11  When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me, and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me; 12  For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper. 13  The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban. 15  I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; 16  I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out; 17  And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. 18  And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand; 19  My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch; 20  My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand. 21 Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel: 22  After my words they spoke 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 they troubled not the serenity of my countenance. 25  I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.