Job 31:1-40
31 “I have made a covenant with my eyes.+
So how could I show improper attention to a virgin?+
2 What, then, would be my share from God above,What inheritance from the Almighty on high?
3 Does not disaster await the wrongdoerAnd calamity those doing what is harmful?+
4 Does he not see my ways+And count all my steps?
5 Have I ever walked in untruth?*
Has my foot hurried to deceive?+
6 Let God weigh me with accurate scales;+Then he will recognize my integrity.+
7 If my footsteps deviate from the way+Or my heart has followed after my eyes+Or my hands have been defiled,
8 Then let me sow seed and someone else eat,+And let what I plant be uprooted.*
9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman+And I have lain in wait+ at my neighbor’s door,
10 Then let my wife grind grain for another man,And let other men have sexual relations with her.*+
11 For that would be shameful conduct,An error deserving punishment by the judges.+
12 It would be a fire that would devour and destroy,*+Consuming even the roots of* all my produce.
13 If I denied justice to my male or female servantsWhen they had a complaint* against me,
14 What can I do when God confronts me?*
What can I answer him when he calls for an accounting?+
15 Did not the One who made me in the womb also make them?+
Was it not the same One who formed us before our birth?*+
16 If I refused to give the poor what they desired+Or saddened the eyes of the widow;*+
17 If I ate my portion of food aloneWithout sharing it with the orphans;+
18 (For from my youth the orphan* grew up with me as though I were his father,And I have been a guide for the widow* from childhood.*)
19 If I saw anyone perishing for lack of clothingOr a poor man with nothing to cover himself;+
20 If he* did not bless me+As he warmed himself with the wool of my sheep;
21 If I shook my fist against the orphan+When he needed my assistance in the city gate;*+
22 Then let my arm* fall from my shoulder,And let my arm be broken at the elbow.*
23 For I dreaded disaster from God,And I could not stand before his dignity.
24 If I put my confidence in goldOr said to fine gold, ‘You are my security!’+
25 If I found my joy in my great wealth+Because of the many possessions I acquired;+
26 If I saw the sun* shiningOr the moon moving in its splendor;+
27 And my heart was secretly enticed,And my mouth kissed my hand in worship of them;+
28 Then that would be an error deserving punishment by the judges,For I would have denied the true God above.
29 Have I ever rejoiced over the destruction of my enemy+Or gloated because evil befell him?
30 I never allowed my mouth to sinBy asking for his life* in an oath.+
31 Have the men of my tent not said,‘Who can find anyone who has not been satisfied with his food?’*+
32 No stranger* had to spend the night outside;+I opened my doors to the traveler.
33 Have I ever tried to cover over my transgressions, like other men,+By hiding my error in the pocket of my garment?
34 Have I been in fear of the reaction of the multitude,Or have I been terrified by the contempt of other families,Making me silent and afraid to go outside?
35 If only someone would listen to me!+
I would sign my name to what I have said.*
Let the Almighty answer me!+
If only my accuser had written out the charges in a document!
36 I would carry it on my shoulder,And I would bind it around my head like a crown.
37 I would give him an accounting for every step I took;I would approach him confidently, like a prince.
38 If my own ground would cry out against meAnd its furrows would weep together;
39 If I have eaten its fruitage without payment,+Or if I have caused its owners* to despair;+
40 Then let thorns sprout for me instead of wheatAnd foul-smelling weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job end here.
Footnotes
^ Or possibly, “with men of untruth?”
^ Or “let my descendants be rooted out.”
^ Lit., “let other men kneel down over her.”
^ Lit., “eat (devour) to destruction.”
^ Or “Uprooting.”
^ Or “legal case.”
^ Lit., “rises up?”
^ Lit., “in the womb.”
^ Lit., “caused the eyes of the widow to fail.”
^ Lit., “he.”
^ Lit., “from my mother’s womb.”
^ Lit., “her.”
^ Lit., “his loins.”
^ Or possibly, “When I saw that I had support in the city gate.”
^ Or “shoulder blade.”
^ Or “from its socket; from its upper bone.”
^ Lit., “light.”
^ Or “soul.”
^ Lit., “meat.”
^ Or “foreign resident.”
^ Or “Here is my signature.”
^ Or “the soul of its owners.”