Job 29 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Job’s Summary Defense

Job 29:1

Job 29:1And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

Job 29:2

Job 29:2“Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me,

Job 29:3

Job 29:3when his lamp shone upon my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,

Job 29:4

Job 29:4as I was in my prime,[fn]
when the friendship of God was upon my tent,

Job 29:5

Job 29:5when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my children were all around me,

Job 29:6

Job 29:6when my steps were washed with butter,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

Job 29:7

Job 29:7When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I prepared my seat in the square,

Job 29:8

Job 29:8the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose and stood;

Job 29:9

Job 29:9the princes refrained from talking
and laid their hand on their mouth;

Job 29:10

Job 29:10the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

Job 29:11

Job 29:11When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
and when the eye saw, it approved,

Job 29:12

Job 29:12because I delivered the poor who cried for help,
and the fatherless who had none to help him.

Job 29:13

Job 29:13The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

Job 29:14

Job 29:14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a turban.

Job 29:15

Job 29:15I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.

Job 29:16

Job 29:16I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

Job 29:17

Job 29:17I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

Job 29:18

Job 29:18Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

Job 29:19

Job 29:19my roots spread out to the waters,
with the dew all night on my branches,

Job 29:20

Job 29:20my glory fresh with me,
and my bow ever new in my hand.’

Job 29:21

Job 29:21“Men listened to me and waited
and kept silence for my counsel.

Job 29:22

Job 29:22After I spoke they did not speak again,
and my word dropped upon them.

Job 29:23

Job 29:23They waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

Job 29:24

Job 29:24I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
and the light of my face they did not cast down.

Job 29:25

Job 29:25I chose their way and sat as chief,
and I lived like a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(29:4)

Hebrew my autumn days

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.