Job 31

¹I made a covenant with mine eyes;

How then should I look upon a virgin?

²For what is the portion from God above,

And the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,

And disaster to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Doth not he see my ways,

And number all my steps?

⁵If I have walked with falsehood,

And my foot hath hasted to deceit

⁶(Let me be weighed in an even balance,

That God may know mine integrity);

⁷If my step hath turned out of the way,

And my heart walked after mine eyes,

And if any spot hath cleaved to my hands:

⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat;

Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

⁹If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman,

And I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door;

¹⁰Then let my wife grind unto another,

And let others bow down upon her.

¹¹For that were a heinous crime;

Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

¹²For it is a fire that consumeth unto Destruction,

And would root out all mine increase.

¹³If I have despised the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant,

When they contended with me;

¹⁴What then shall I do when God riseth up?

And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

¹⁵Did not he that made me in the womb make him?

And did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶If I have withheld the poor from their desire,

Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel alone,

And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof

¹⁸(Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

And her have I guided from my mother’s womb);

¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing,

Or that the needy had no covering;

²⁰If his loins have not blessed me,

And if he hath not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,

Because I saw my help in the gate:

²²Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade,

And mine arm be broken from the bone.

²³For calamity from God is a terror to me,

And by reason of his majesty I can do nothing.

²⁴If I have made gold my hope,

And have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

²⁵If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,

And because my hand had gotten much;

²⁶If I have beheld the sun when it shined,

Or the moon walking in brightness,

²⁷And my heart hath been secretly enticed,

And my mouth hath kissed my hand:

²⁸This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges;

For I should have denied the God that is above.

²⁹If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,

Or lifted up myself when evil found him

³⁰(Yea, I have not suffered by mouth to sin

By asking his life with a curse);

³¹If the men of my tent have not said,

Who can find one that hath not been filled with his meat?

³²(The sojourner hath not lodged in the street;

But I have opened my doors to the traveller);

³³If like Adam I have covered my transgressions,

By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom,

³⁴Because I feared the great multitude,

And the contempt of families terrified me,

So that I kept silence, and went not out of the door—

³⁵Oh that I had one to hear me!

(Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me)

And that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!

³⁶Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder;

I would bind it unto me as a crown:

³⁷I would declare unto him the number of my steps;

As a prince would I go near unto him.

³⁸If my land crieth out against me,

And the furrows thereof weep together;

³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,

Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat,

And cockle instead of barley.