Job 29:16

¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵ I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame.

I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷ I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸ So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.
KJV: I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
WEB: I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.
ASV: I was a father to the needy: And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.
DARBY: I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;
BLB: I [was] a father to the poor, and the case I did not know, I searched it out.

ÅB: En far var jeg for de fattige, og ukjente folks sak gransket jeg.
OTB: Jeg var en far for de trengende,
Og jeg undersøkte saken jeg ikke kjente.
B1930: En far var jeg for de fattige, og ukjente folks sak gransket jeg.

Proverbs 29:7
The righteous consider the cause of the poor, but the wicked have no regard for such concerns.
Read in context
Psalms 68:5
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.
Read in context
Esther 2:7
And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, because she did not have a father or mother. The young woman was lovely in form and appearance, and when her father and mother had died, Mordecai had taken her in as his own daughter.
Read in context
Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.
Read in context
Job 24:4
They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
Read in context
Job 31:18
though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—
Read in context
Exodus 18:26
And they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult cases to Moses, but any minor issue they would judge themselves.
Read in context
Deuteronomy 17:8–10
If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose.
Read in context