Job 31:1-20 ▼

1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid?

2 For what would have been [my] portion of +God from above, and what the heritage of the Almighty from on high?

3 Is not calamity for the unrighteous? and misfortune for the workers of iniquity?

4 Doth not he see my ways, and number all my steps?

5 If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot hath hasted to deceit,

6 (Let me be weighed in an even balance, and +God will take knowledge of my blamelessness;)

7 If my step have turned out of the way, and my heart followed mine eyes, and if any blot cleaveth to my hands;

8 Let me sow, and another eat; and let mine offspring be rooted out.

9 If my heart have been enticed unto a woman, so that I laid wait at my neighbour's door,

10 Let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her.

11 For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity [to be judged by] the judges:

12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

13 If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me,

14 What then should I do when God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?

15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb?

16 If I have withheld the poor from [their] desire, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17 Or have eaten my morsel alone, so that the fatherless ate not thereof,

18 (For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have guided the [widow] from my mother's womb;)

19 If I have seen any perishing for want of clothing, or any needy without covering;

20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs;