| Chapter 29 |
1 | And Job continued his parable and said,
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2 | Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;
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3 | When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness;
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4 | As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,
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5 | When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;
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6 | When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ...
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7 | When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,
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8 | The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up;
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9 | Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;
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10 | The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.
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11 | When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me, and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me;
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12 | For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.
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13 | The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
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14 | I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban.
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15 | I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame;
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16 | I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;
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17 | And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
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18 | And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;
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19 | My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch;
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20 | My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand.
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21 | Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel:
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22 | After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them;
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23 | And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
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24 | [If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance.
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25 | I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.
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