Job 31:1-40

  • Job defends his integrity (1-40)

    • “A covenant with my eyes” (1)

    • Asks to be weighed by God (6)

    • Not an adulterer (9-12)

    • Not a lover of money (24, 25)

    • Not an idolater (26-28)

31  “I have made a covenant with my eyes.+ So how could I show improper attention to a virgin?+  2  What, then, would be my share from God above,What inheritance from the Almighty on high?  3  Does not disaster await the wrongdoerAnd calamity those doing what is harmful?+  4  Does he not see my ways+And count all my steps?  5  Have I ever walked in untruth?* Has my foot hurried to deceive?+  6  Let God weigh me with accurate scales;+Then he will recognize my integrity.+  7  If my footsteps deviate from the way+Or my heart has followed after my eyes+Or my hands have been defiled,  8  Then let me sow seed and someone else eat,+And let what I plant 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 grind grain for another man,And let other men have sexual relations with her.*+ 11  For that would be shameful conduct,An error deserving punishment by the judges.+ 12  It would be a fire that would devour and destroy,*+Consuming even the roots of* all my produce. 13  If I denied justice to my male or female servantsWhen they had a complaint* against me, 14  What can I do when God confronts me?* What can I answer him when he calls for an accounting?+ 15  Did not the One who made me in the womb also make them?+ Was it not the same One who formed us before our birth?*+ 16  If I refused to give the poor what they desired+Or saddened the eyes of the widow;*+ 17  If I ate my portion of food aloneWithout sharing it with the orphans;+ 18  (For from my youth the orphan* grew up with me as though I were his father,And I have been a guide for the widow* from childhood.*) 19  If I saw anyone perishing for lack of clothingOr a poor man with nothing to cover himself;+ 20  If he* did not bless me+As he warmed himself with the wool of my sheep; 21  If I shook my fist against the orphan+When he needed my assistance in the city gate;*+ 22  Then let my arm* fall from my shoulder,And let my arm be broken at the elbow.* 23  For I dreaded disaster from God,And I could not stand before his dignity. 24  If I put my confidence in goldOr said to fine gold, ‘You are my security!’+ 25  If I found my joy in my great wealth+Because of the many possessions I acquired;+ 26  If I saw the sun* shiningOr the moon moving in its splendor;+ 27  And my heart was secretly enticed,And my mouth kissed my hand in worship of them;+ 28  Then that would be an error deserving punishment by the judges,For I would have denied the true God above. 29  Have I ever rejoiced over the destruction of my enemy+Or gloated because evil befell him? 30  I never allowed my mouth to sinBy asking for his life* in an oath.+ 31  Have the men of my tent not said,‘Who can find anyone who has not been satisfied with his food?’*+ 32  No stranger* had to spend the night outside;+I opened my doors to the traveler. 33  Have I ever tried to cover over my transgressions, like other men,+By hiding my error in the pocket of my garment? 34  Have I been in fear of the reaction of the multitude,Or have I been terrified by the contempt of other families,Making me silent and afraid to go outside? 35  If only someone would listen to me!+ I would sign my name to what I have said.* Let the Almighty answer me!+ If only my accuser had written out the charges in a document! 36  I would carry it on my shoulder,And I would bind it around my head like a crown. 37  I would give him an accounting for every step I took;I would approach him confidently, like a prince. 38  If my own ground would cry out against meAnd its furrows would weep together; 39  If I have eaten its fruitage without payment,+Or if I have caused its owners* to despair;+ 40  Then let thorns sprout for me instead of wheatAnd foul-smelling weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job end here.

Footnotes

Or possibly, “with men of untruth?”
Or “let my descendants be rooted out.”
Lit., “let other men kneel down over her.”
Lit., “eat (devour) to destruction.”
Or “Uprooting.”
Or “legal case.”
Lit., “rises up?”
Lit., “in the womb.”
Lit., “caused the eyes of the widow to fail.”
Lit., “he.”
Lit., “from my mother’s womb.”
Lit., “her.”
Lit., “his loins.”
Or possibly, “When I saw that I had support in the city gate.”
Or “shoulder blade.”
Or “from its socket; from its upper bone.”
Lit., “light.”
Or “soul.”
Lit., “meat.”
Or “foreign resident.”
Or “Here is my signature.”
Or “the soul of its owners.”