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And Job continued his parable and said,
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Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;
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When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness;
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As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,
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When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;
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When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ...
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When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,
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The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up;
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Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;
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The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.
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When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me, and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me;
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For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.
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The blessing of him that was perishing came upon me, and I caused the widow`s heart to sing for joy.
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I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was as a mantle and a turban.
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I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame;
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I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;
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And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
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And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;
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My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch;
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My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand.
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Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel:
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After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them;
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And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.