Job 31:1-20 ▼

1 |I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I entertain thoughts against a virgin?

2 What then would be one's lot from God above, one's heritage from the Almighty on high?

3 Is it not misfortune for the unjust, and disaster for those who work iniquity?

4 Does he not see my ways and count all my steps?

5 If I have walked in falsehood, and if my foot has hastened to deceit--

6 let him weigh me with honest scales; then God will discover my integrity.

7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way, if my heart has gone after my eyes, or if anything has defiled my hands,

8 then let me sow and let another eat, and let my crops 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 turn the millstone for another man, and may other men have sexual relations with her.

11 For I would have committed a shameful act, an iniquity to be judged.

12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, and it would uproot all my harvest.

13 |If I have disregarded the right of my male servants or my female servants when they disputed with me,

14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; when he intervenes, how will I respond to him?

15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us in the womb?

16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself, and did not share any of it with orphans--

18 but from my youth I raised the orphan like a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow!

19 If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without a coat,

20 whose heart did not bless me as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep,