Chapter 31

¹I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin. ²For what part should God from above have in me, and what inheritance the Almighty from on high? ³Is not destruction to the wicked, and aversion to them that work iniquity? ⁴Doth not he consider my ways, and number all my steps? ⁵If I have walked in vanity, and my foot hath made haste to deceit: ⁶Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity. ⁷If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands: ⁸Then let me sow and let another eat: and let my offspring be rooted out. ⁹If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend's door: ¹⁰Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her. ¹¹For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity. ¹²It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring. ¹³If I have despised to abide judgment with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me: ¹⁴For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb? ¹⁶If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait: ¹⁷If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof: ¹⁸(For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb :) ¹⁹If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering: ²⁰If his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep: ²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gate: ²²Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken. ²³For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was not able to bear. ²⁴If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence: ²⁵If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much. ²⁶If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon going in brightness: ²⁷And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with my mouth: ²⁸Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God. ²⁹If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him. ³⁰For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul. ³¹If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled? ³²The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller. ³³If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom. ³⁴If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and I have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door. ³⁵Who would grant me a hearer, that the Almighty may hear my desire; and that he himself that judgeth would write a book, ³⁶That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown? ³⁷At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince. ³⁸If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn: ³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof: ⁴⁰Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.