Job 31

1 “I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?⋮

2 For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?⋮

3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?⋮

4 Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?⋮

5 “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit⋮

6 (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);⋮

7 if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,⋮

8 then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.⋮

9 “If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,⋮

10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.⋮

11 For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,⋮

12 for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.⋮

13 “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me,⋮

14 what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him?⋮

15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?⋮

16 “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,⋮

17 or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it⋮

18 (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb);⋮

19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;⋮

20 if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;⋮

21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate;⋮

22 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.⋮

23 For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing.⋮

24 “If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’⋮

25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;⋮

26 if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,⋮

27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth;⋮

28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have denied the God who is above.⋮

29 “If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him⋮

30 (I have certainly not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);⋮

31 if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’⋮

32 (the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);⋮

33 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,⋮

34 because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—⋮

35 oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!⋮

36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a crown.⋮

37 I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince.⋮

38 If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;⋮

39 if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,⋮

40 let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.⋮