Job 31

1I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid?

2For what is the 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 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 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 art my 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 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 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.