² Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

⁷ When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

⁸ The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

⁹ The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰ The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹ When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

²¹ Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

²² After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

²³ And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

²⁴ If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

²⁵ I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.