Job 29:7–17

⁷When I went out to the city gate

and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the old men rose to their feet.

⁹The princes refrained from speaking

and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed,

and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹For those who heard me called me blessed,

and those who saw me commended me,

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried out

and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹³The dying man blessed me,

and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵I served as eyes to the blind

and as feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy,

and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust

and snatched the prey from his teeth.