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29:1  Job continued.
29:2  Job: Ah, that I were as I once was, months ago during the time when God oversaw me,
29:3  When His lamp shone above my head, and by His light, I walked through the darkness.
29:4  Ah, to be in the ripest time of life once more— when the intimacies of friendship with God enfolded my tent,
29:5  When the Highest One was with me and my children encircled me,
29:6  When my steps were bathed in milk and the rock poured out rivers of olive oil, showering my body,
29:7  When I went up to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the town square where the elders meet.
29:8  There the young saw me and made room for me, in deference to elders. The old rose and stood out of respect.
29:9  The leaders stopped talking with their hands over their mouths.
29:10  The voices of nobles fell to a hush; their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
29:11  Every ear that heard me blessed me, and every eye that saw me testified to my greatness.
29:12  After all, I rescued the poor when they cried out for help and assisted the orphans when they had no one else.
29:13  The dying spoke their blessings over me, and the widows sang their joyful songs honoring what I did.
29:14  I adorned myself in righteousness, and it covered me; my justice fit me like a cloak and turban— conveying both my dignity and my authority.
29:15  I was the eyes for the blind, the feet for the lame,
29:16  A father for the needy, and I sought for the cause of whom I did not know.
29:17  I broke out the fangs of the wicked and wrested prey from their jaws.
29:18  Then I said, “I will pass from this earth in the comfort of my nest. My days will be more numerous than a beach’s grains of sand.
29:19  My roots will grow deep, spreading out to the water’s edge, and in the night, the dew will come to rest on my branches.
29:20  Respect will be accorded me every day, my skill with the bow always new in my hand.”
29:21  People used to listen to me, the sense of expectation visible on their faces; they waited in silence for my advice.
29:22  And when I finished, they did not hurry to speak again. They waited while my words dropped like dew upon them.
29:23  Indeed, they waited for me as one waits for a good rain, and they opened their mouths as if to catch spring showers on their tongues.
29:24  I smiled upon them when their confidence flagged, and they took comfort in my beaming face.
29:25  I led them in their way. I sat as their leader. I lived like a king among his troops. I was as a happy man spreading comfort among the mourners.