• Job’s Summary Defense

  • 1 Job further continued his discourse, and said:
  • 2 “Oh, that I were as in months past, As in the days when God watched over me;
  • 3 When His lamp shone upon my head, And when by His light I walked through darkness;
  • 4 Just as I was in the days of my prime, When the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;
  • 5 When the Almighty was yet with me, When my children were around me;
  • 6 When my steps were bathed with cream, And the rock poured out rivers of oil for me!
  • 7 “When I went out to the gate by the city, When I took my seat in the open square,
  • 8 The young men saw me and hid, And the aged arose and stood;
  • 9 The princes refrained from talking, And put their hand on their mouth;
  • 10 The voice of nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
  • 11 When the ear heard, then it blessed me, And when the eye saw, then it approved me;
  • 12 Because I delivered the poor who cried out, The fatherless and the one who had no helper.
  • 13 The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
  • 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban.
  • 15 I was eyes to the blind, And I was feet to the lame.
  • 16 I was a father to the poor, And I searched out the case that I did not know.
  • 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked, And plucked the victim from his teeth.
  • 18 “Then I said, ‘I shall die in my nest, And multiply my days as the sand.
  • 19 My root is spread out to the waters, And the dew lies all night on my branch.
  • 20 My glory is fresh within me, And my bow is renewed in my hand.’
  • 21 “Men listened to me and waited, And kept silence for my counsel.
  • 22 After my words they did not speak again, And my speech settled on them as dew.
  • 23 They waited for me as for the rain, And they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
  • 24 If I mocked at them, they did not believe it, And the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
  • 25 I chose the way for them, and sat as chief; So I dwelt as a king in the army, As one who comforts mourners.