Job 31

¹“I made a covenant with my eyes

not to look lustfully at a young woman.

²For what is our lot from God above,

our heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Is it not ruin for the wicked,

disaster for those who do wrong?

⁴Does he not see my ways

and count my every step?

⁵“If I have walked with falsehood

or my foot has hurried after deceit—

⁶let God weigh me in honest scales

and he will know that I am blameless—

⁷if my steps have turned from the path,

if my heart has been led by my eyes,

or if my hands have been defiled,

⁸then may others eat what I have sown,

and may my crops be uprooted.

⁹“If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,

¹⁰then may my wife grind another man’s grain,

and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹For that would have been wicked,

a sin to be judged.

¹²It is a fire that burns to Destruction;

it would have uprooted my harvest.

¹³“If I have denied justice to any of my servants,

whether male or female,

when they had a grievance against me,

¹⁴what will I do when God confronts me?

What will I answer when called to account?

¹⁵Did not he who made me in the womb make them?

Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

¹⁶“If I have denied the desires of the poor

or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,

¹⁷if I have kept my bread to myself,

not sharing it with the fatherless—

¹⁸but from my youth I reared them as a father would,

and from my birth I guided the widow—

¹⁹if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,

or the needy without garments,

²⁰and their hearts did not bless me

for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,

²¹if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,

knowing that I had influence in court,

²²then let my arm fall from the shoulder,

let it be broken off at the joint.

²³For I dreaded destruction from God,

and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.

²⁴“If I have put my trust in gold

or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’

²⁵if I have rejoiced over my great wealth,

the fortune my hands had gained,

²⁶if I have regarded the sun in its radiance

or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷so that my heart was secretly enticed

and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,

²⁸then these also would be sins to be judged,

for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

²⁹“If I have rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune

or gloated over the trouble that came to him—

³⁰I have not allowed my mouth to sin

by invoking a curse against their life—

³¹if those of my household have never said,

‘Who has not been filled with Job’s meat?’—

³²but no stranger had to spend the night in the street,

for my door was always open to the traveler—

³³if I have concealed my sin as people do,

by hiding my guilt in my heart

³⁴because I so feared the crowd

and so dreaded the contempt of the clans

that I kept silent and would not go outside—

³⁵(“Oh, that I had someone to hear me!

I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me;

let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

³⁶Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,

I would put it on like a crown.

³⁷I would give him an account of my every step;

I would present it to him as to a ruler.)—

³⁸“if my land cries out against me

and all its furrows are wet with tears,

³⁹if I have devoured its yield without payment

or broken the spirit of its tenants,

⁴⁰then let briers come up instead of wheat

and stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.