But still Job proceeding spoke the retort.
O that he might have put me according to the month before the days of which me the God guarded;
as when shone the lamp his over my head; when by his light I went through darkness;
when I was in the days of my youth; when the God overseeing dealt with my house;
when I was flush exceedingly, and round about me my children;
when poured forth my ways butter, and my mountains poured forth milk;
when I went forth at daybreak into the city, and in the squares they placed my chair;
In beholding me, the young men hid, the old men all stood.
And the stout men ceased speaking, their finger placing to their mouth.
And the ones hearing declared me blessed; and their tongue to their throat cleaved.
For the ear heard, and blessed me; and the eye beholding me, turned aside.
For I delivered the poor from out of the hand of the mighty one; and the orphan in whom there was no helper, I helped.
The blessing of the one perishing upon me may come; the mouth of the widow blessed me.
And righteousness I had put on, and I clothed on judgment equal to a double garment.
I was the eye of the blind, and the foot for the lame.
I was the father of the disabled; the cause and which I knew not I tracked out.
And I broke the molars of unjust ones; and from out of the midst of their teeth the prey I pulled out.
And I said, my stature shall grow old as the trunk of a palm; with much time I shall spend life.
The root was widened upon the water, and the dew lodged in my harvest.
My glory was new with me, and my bow in his hand went forth.
Men hearing of me took heed, and kept silent over my counsel.
At my word they proceeded not; overjoyed but they became when I spoke to them.
As the earth thirsting, favorably receiving the rain, so were these at my speech.
If I should have laughed on them, in no way should they have trusted the thing; and the light of my face was not fallen away.
I chose their way, and I sat as ruler; and I encamped as king among armed ones, in which manner mourners comforting.