Job 31

¹I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid? ²For what isthe portion of God from above, and the heritage of the Almighty from 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 vanity, 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 mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any spot hath cleaved to mine hands: ⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out. ⁹If mine heart have been enticed unto a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door: ¹⁰Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹For that were an 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 did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, 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 theirdesire, 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 I have been her guide 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 were not 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 was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I could do nothing. ²⁴If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, Thou artmy confidence; ²⁵If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; ²⁶If I 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 lied to God that is above. ²⁹If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him; ³⁰(Yea, I suffered not my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse;) ³¹If the men of my tent said not, Who can find one that hath not been satisfied with his flesh? ³²The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller; ³³If like Adam I 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 hadthe 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 cry 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. The words of Job are ended.