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29:1  Job continued to speak:
29:2  “How I wish for the months that have passed and the days when God watched over me.
29:3  God’s lamp shined on my head, and I walked through darkness by his light.
29:4  I wish for the days when I was strong, when God’s close friendship blessed my house.
29:5  The Almighty was still with me, and my children were all around me.
29:6  It was as if my path were covered with cream and the rocks poured out olive oil for me.
29:7  I would go to the city gate and sit in the public square.
29:8  When the young men saw me, they would step aside, and the old men would stand up in respect.
29:9  The leading men stopped speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.
29:10  The voices of the important men were quiet, as if their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
29:11  Anyone who heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me praised me,
29:12  because I saved the poor who called out and the orphan who had no one to help.
29:13  The dying person blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing.
29:14  I put on right living as if it were clothing; I wore fairness like a robe and a turban.
29:15  I was eyes for the blind and feet for the lame.
29:16  I was like a father to needy people, and I took the side of strangers who were in trouble.
29:17  I broke the fangs of evil people and snatched the captives from their teeth.
29:18  “I thought, ‘I will live for as many days as there are grains of sand, and I will die in my own house.
29:19  My roots will reach down to the water. The dew will lie on the branches all night.
29:20  New honors will come to me continually, and I will always have great strength.’
29:21  “People listened to me carefully and waited quietly for my advice.
29:22  After I finished speaking, they spoke no more. My words fell very gently on their ears.
29:23  They waited for me as they would for rain and drank in my words like spring rain.
29:24  I smiled at them when they doubted, and my approval was important to them.
29:25  I chose the way for them and was their leader. I lived like a king among his army, like a person who comforts sad people.