Job’s Final Appeal

1I made a covenant with mine eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin.

2Now what portion has God given from above? and is there an inheritance given of the Mighty One from the highest?

3Alas! destruction to the unrighteous, and rejection to them that do iniquity.

4Will he not see my way, and number all my steps?

5But if I had gone with scorners, and if too my foot has hasted to deceit:

6(for I am weighed in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence:)

7if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if mine heart has followed mine eye, and if too I have touched gifts with my hands;

8then let me sow, and let others eat; and let me be uprooted on the earth.

9If my heart has gone forth after another man's wife, and if I laid wait at her doors;

10then let my wife also please another, and let my children be brought low.

11For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, in the case of defiling another man's wife.

12For it is a fire burning on every side, and whomsoever it attacks, it utterly destroys.

13And if too I despised the judgment of my servant or my handmaid, when they pleaded with me;

14what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? and if also he should at all visit me, can I make an answer?

15Were not they too formed as I also was formed in the womb? yea, we were formed in the same womb.

16But the helpless missed not whatever need they had, and I did not cause the eye of the widow to fail.

17And if too I ate my morsel alone, and did not impart of it to the orphan;

18(for I nourished them as a father from my youth and guided them from my mother's womb.)

19And if too I overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him;

20and if the poor did not bless me, and their shoulders were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs;

21if I lifted my hand against an orphan, trusting that my strength was far superior to his:

22let them my shoulder start from the blade-bone, and my arm be crushed off from the elbow.

23For the fear of the Lord constrained me, and I cannot bear up by reason of his burden.

24If I made gold my treasure, and if too I trusted the precious stone;

25and if too I rejoiced when my wealth was abundant, and if too I laid my hand on innumerable treasures:

26(do we not see the shining sun eclipsed, and the moon waning? for they have not power to continue:)

27and if my heart was secretly deceived, and if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it:

28let this also then be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity: for I should have lied against the Lord Most High.

29And if too I was glad at the fall of mine enemies, and mine heart said, Aha!

30let then mine ear hear my curse, and let me be a byword among my people in my affliction.

31And if too my handmaids have often said, Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh; (whereas I was very kind:

32for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to every one that came:)

33or if too having sinned unintentionally, I hid my sin;

34(for I did not stand in awe of a great multitude, so as not to declare boldly before them:) and if too I permitted a poor man to go out of my door with an empty bosom:

35(Oh that I had a hearer,) and if I had not feared the hand of the Lord; and as to the written charge which I had against any one,

36I would place it as a chaplet on my shoulders, and read it.

37And if I did not read it and return it, having taken nothing from the debtor:

38If at any time the land groaned against me, and if its furrows mourned together;

39and if I ate its strength alone without price, and if I too grieved the heart of the owner of the soil, by taking aught from him:

40then let the nettle come up to me instead of wheat, and a bramble instead of barley. And Job ceased speaking.