Job 31:1-30 ▼

1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

2 For what is the allotment of God from above, or the heritage from the Almighty on high?

3 Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

4 Does He not see my ways and count my every step?

5 If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,

6 let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

7 If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

8 then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

9 If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,

10 then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

11 For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

12 For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon; it would root out my entire harvest.

13 If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

14 what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

15 Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

16 If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

17 if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

18 though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

19 if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,

20 if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

22 then may my arm fall from my shoulder and be torn from its socket.

23 For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

24 If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,

25 if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,

26 if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

27 so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

28 this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.

29 If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

30 I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse—