Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

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,
    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.