Job 29:2-30:31 Who will give me as the months of old, as the days God will watch me?

JuliaSmith⁽ⁱ⁾ ² Who will give me as the months of old, as the days God will watch me? ³ In his causing his light to shine upon my head, before his light I shall go through darkness; ⁴ As I was in the days of my ripeness, in the intercourse of God upon my tent; ⁵ In the Almighty being yet with me, my youths round about me; ⁶ In washing my goings with butter, and the rock will pour out with me streams of oil; ⁷ In my going forth to the gate upon the city, in the street I shall prepare my seat ⁸ The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the old men rose up and stood. ⁹ Chiefs held back in words, and they will put the hand to the mouth. ¹⁰ The voice the leaders hid, and their tongue was joined to their palate. ¹¹ If the ear heard, and it will pronounce me happy; and the eye saw, and it will testify to me: ¹² For I shall deliver the poor crying, and the orphan, and none helping to him. ¹³ The praise of him perishing will come upon me, and I shall cause the heart of the widow to rejoice. ¹⁴ I put on justice and it will clothe me: my judgment as an upper garment and a turban. ¹⁵ Eyes was I to the blind one, and feet to the lame was I. ¹⁶ I was a father to the needy, and the contention I knew not I shall search it out ¹⁷ And I shall break the biter's teeth of the evil one, and I shall cast the prey from his teeth. ¹⁸ And saying, I shall expire with my nest I shall multiply days as the sand. ¹⁹ My root opened to the waters, and the dew will lodge upon my foliage. ²⁰ My glory new with me, and my bow will be changed in my hand. ²¹ To me they heard, and they waited, and they will be silent for them at my counsel. ²² After my words they will not repeat, and my speech will drop upon them. ²³ And they waited for me as the rain, and they opened wide their mouth for the latter rain. ²⁴ I shall laugh at them, they will not believe; and the light of my face they will not cast down. ²⁵ I shall choose their way, and I shall sit the head, and I shall dwell as king in the troop, as he shall comfort those mourning. ³⁰ ¹ And now the younger than I laughed upon me, which I rejected their fathers to set with the dogs of my flock. ² Also the strength of their hands wherefore to me? Upon them old age perished. ³ In want and in hunger, barren, gnawing the dry land, yesternight desolation and burning. ⁴ Plucking off sea purslain upon the shrub, the root of broom their bread. ⁵ They shall be driven forth from the midst, they shall cry after them as a thief: ⁶ To dwell in the horror of the valleys, holes of the dust, and the rocks. ⁷ Between the shrubs they will bray; they will be poured out under the thorn bush. ⁸ The sons of the foolish one, also the sons of no name: they were beaten from the land. ⁹ And now I was their song, and I to them for a by word. ¹⁰ They abhorred me, they removed far from me, and withheld not spittle from my face. ¹¹ Because he loosed his cord and he will afflict me, and they cast off the bridle from before me. ¹² Upon the right the brood will rise up; they cast away my feet, and they will cast up the paths of their destruction against me. ¹³ They tore up my beaten path, they helped for my fall, no help to them. ¹⁴ They will come as a wide breach under a destroying tempest, they rolled themselves. ¹⁵ Terror turned upon me, it will pursue my willingness as the wind, and my salvation passed away as a cloud. ¹⁶ And now my soul shall be poured out upon me; and the days of affliction will hold me fast ¹⁷ The night my bones pierced from above me, and my gnawers will not lie down. ¹⁸ By the multitude of power my clothing will be disguised: it will gird me about as the mouth of my coat ¹⁹ He cast me to the clay; I shall become like as dust and ashes. ²⁰ I shall cry to thee and thou wilt not answer me: I stood up and thou wilt not attend to me. ²¹ Thou wilt turn to be cruel to me: with the strength of thy hand thou wilt lie in wait for me. ²² Thou wilt lift me up to the wind; thou wilt cause me to ride, and thou wilt melt to me counsel. ²³ For I knew thou wilt turn me back to death, and the house appointed to all living. ²⁴ But prayer is nothing; he will send forth the hand, if in his calamity to them a cry for help. ²⁵ If I wept not for him being hard of day: my soul was grieved for the needy. ²⁶ For I hoped for good and evil will come: and I shall wait for light and darkness will come. ²⁷ My bowels boiled, and were not silent: the days of affliction anticipated me. ²⁸ I went darkened without warmth: I rose up, I shall cry in the convocation. ²⁹ I was a brother to jackals, and a companion to the daughters of the ostrich. ³⁰ My skin was black from above me, and my bones burnt from heat ³¹ And my harp will be for mourning, and my pipe for the voice of those weeping.