Job's Summary Defense
1 And Job again
1took up his discourse, and said:
2
"Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,
3
when his
2lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
4
as I was in my prime, when the
3friendship of God was upon my tent,
5
when the Almighty was yet with me, when my
4children were all around me,
6
when my steps were
5washed with
6butter, and
7the rock poured out for me streams of
8oil!
7
When I went out to
9the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
8
the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
9
the princes refrained from talking and
10laid their hand on their mouth;
10
the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their
11tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11
When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,
12
because I
12delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
13
13The blessing of him who was
14about to perish came upon me, and I caused
15the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14
I
16put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and
17a turban.
15
I was
18eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
16
I was a father to the needy, and I searched out
19the cause of him whom I did not know.
17
I
20broke
21the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
18
22Then I thought, 'I shall die in my
23nest, and I shall multiply my days as
24the sand,
19
my
25roots spread out to
26the waters, with the dew all night on my
27branches,
20
my glory fresh with me, and my
28bow ever
29new in my hand.'
21
"Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.
22
After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word
30dropped upon them.
23
They waited for me as for the rain, and they
31opened their mouths as for the
32spring rain.
24
I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and
33the light of my
34face they did not cast down.
25
I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like
35a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.