Job 31

¹“I made a covenant with my eyes;

how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

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?

⁴Doesn’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);

⁷if my step has turned out of the way,

if my heart walked after my eyes,

if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

⁸then 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 neighbour’s door,

¹⁰then let my wife grind for another,

and let others sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime.

Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,

¹²for 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,

¹⁴what then will I do when God rises up?

When he visits, what will I answer him?

¹⁵Didn’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,

¹⁷or 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);

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

or that the needy had no covering;

²⁰if his heart hasn’t blessed me,

if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;

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 my arm be broken from the bone.

²³For 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;’

²⁵If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,

and because my hand had gotten much;

²⁶if I have seen the sun when it shined,

or the moon moving in splendour,

²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed,

and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth;

²⁸this 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);

³¹if 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 traveller);

³³if like Adam I have covered my transgressions,

by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

³⁴because 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—

³⁵oh that I had one to hear me!

Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!

Let the accuser write my indictment!

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder,

and I would bind it to me as a crown.

³⁷I would declare to him the number of my steps.

I would go near to him like a prince.

³⁸If my land cries out against me,

and its furrows weep together;

³⁹if I have eaten its fruits without money,

or have caused its owners to lose their life,

⁴⁰let briers grow instead of wheat,

and stinkweed instead of barley.”