Job 31:1-28 ▼

1 “I made a covenant for my eyes, || And how do I attend to a virgin?

2 And what [is] the portion of God from above? And the inheritance of the Mighty from the heights?

3 Is not calamity to the perverse? And strangeness to workers of iniquity?

4 Does He not see my ways, || And number all my steps?

5 If I have walked with vanity, || And my foot hurries to deceit,

6 He weighs me in righteous balances, || And God knows my integrity.

7 If my step turns aside from the way, || And my heart has gone after my eyes, || And blemish has cleaved to my hands,

8 Let me sow—and another eat, || And let my products be rooted out.

9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman, || And I laid wait by the opening of my neighbor,

10 Let my wife grind to another, || And let others bend over her.

11 For it [is] a wicked thing, and a judicial iniquity;

12 For it [is] a fire, it consumes to destruction, || And takes root among all my increase,

13 If I despise the cause of my manservant, || And of my handmaid, || In their contending with me,

14 Then what do I do when God arises? And when He inspects, || What do I answer Him?

15 Did He that made me in the womb not make him? Indeed, One prepares us in the womb.

16 If I withhold the poor from pleasure, || And consume the eyes of the widow,

17 And I eat my morsel by myself, || And the orphan has nothing [to] eat of it,

18 (But from my youth || He grew up with me as [with] a father, || And from the belly of my mother I am led),

19 If I see [any] perishing without clothing, || And there is no covering for the needy,

20 If his loins have not blessed me, || And from the fleece of my sheep || He does not warm himself,

21 If I have waved my hand at the fatherless, || When I see [him] in the gate of my court,

22 Let my shoulder fall from its blade, || And the bone from my arm be broken.

23 For calamity [from] God [is] a dread to me, || And because of His excellence I am not able.

24 If I have made gold my confidence, || And to the pure gold have said, My trust;

25 If I rejoice because my wealth [is] great, || And because my hand has found abundance,

26 If I see the light when it shines, || And the precious moon walking,

27 And my heart is enticed in secret, || And my hand kisses my mouth,

28 It also [is] a judicial iniquity, || For I had lied to God above.