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Job's Summary Defense

 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

² “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me,
³ when his lamp shone upon my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
⁴ as I was in my prime,^[a]
when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
⁵ when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my children were all around me,
⁶ when my steps were washed with butter,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I prepared my seat in the square,
⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose and stood;
⁹ the princes refrained from talking
and laid their hand on their mouth;
¹⁰ the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
¹¹ When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
and when the eye saw, it approved,
¹² because I delivered the poor who cried for help,
and the fatherless who had none to help him.
¹³ The blessing of him who was about to perish 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 feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
¹⁸ Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
¹⁹ my roots spread out to the waters,
with the dew all night on my branches,
²⁰ my glory fresh with me,
and my bow ever new in my hand.’

²¹ “Men listened to me and waited
and kept silence for my counsel.
²² After I spoke they did not speak again,
and my word dropped upon them.
²³ They waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
²⁴ I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
and the light of my face they did not cast down.
²⁵ I chose their way and sat as chief,
and I lived like a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners.

Footnotes:

1. Job 29:4 Hebrew my autumn days

Cross references:

1. Job 29:1 : ch. 27:1; See Num. 23:7
2. Job 29:3 : ch. 18:6; 2 Sam. 21:17; Ps. 18:28
3. Job 29:4 : Ps. 25:14; Prov. 3:32; See ch. 15:8
4. Job 29:5 : ch. 1:2; [Ps. 128:3]
5. Job 29:6 : [Gen. 49:11]
6. Job 29:6 : ch. 20:17
7. Job 29:6 : Deut. 32:13, 14; Ps. 81:16
8. Job 29:6 : [Deut. 33:24]
9. Job 29:7 : See ch. 5:4
10. Job 29:9 : See ch. 21:5
11. Job 29:10 : Ps. 22:15; 137:6; Lam. 4:4; Ezek. 3:26
12. Job 29:12 : Ps. 72:12
13. Job 29:13 : ch. 31:20
14. Job 29:13 : Prov. 31:6; Isa. 27:13
15. Job 29:13 : [Ruth 2:20]
16. Job 29:14 : Ps. 132:9; Isa. 59:17; 61:10; [Isa. 11:5; Eph. 6:14; 1 Thess. 5:8]
17. Job 29:14 : Isa. 62:3; Zech. 3:5; [ch. 19:9]
18. Job 29:15 : Num. 10:31
19. Job 29:16 : [Prov. 29:7]
20. Job 29:17 : Ps. 3:7
21. Job 29:17 : Ps. 58:6; Prov. 30:14
22. Job 29:18 : [Ps. 30:6]
23. Job 29:18 : Num. 24:21; See ch. 39:27
24. Job 29:18 : Gen. 22:17
25. Job 29:19 : ch. 18:16
26. Job 29:19 : See Ps. 1:3
27. Job 29:19 : [ch. 14:9]
28. Job 29:20 : Gen. 49:24
29. Job 29:20 : [Isa. 40:31; 41:1]
30. Job 29:22 : [Deut. 32:2; 33:28]
31. Job 29:23 : Ps. 119:131; [Isa. 5:14]
32. Job 29:23 : Prov. 16:15; Jer. 3:3; Zech. 10:1; [Deut. 11:14]
33. Job 29:24 : Prov. 16:15
34. Job 29:24 : Gen. 4:5
35. Job 29:25 : ch. 15:24