Chapter 31

¹“I made a covenant with my eyes,

How then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

²For what is the portion from God above,

And the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,

And disaster to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Doesn’t he see my ways,

And number all my steps?

⁵“If I have walked with falsehood,

And my foot has hurried to deceit

⁶(Let me be weighed in an even balance,

That God may know my integrity);

⁷If my step has turned out of the way,

If my heart walked after my eyes,

If any defilement has stuck to my hands,

⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat;

Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

⁹“If my heart has been enticed to a woman,

And I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door;

¹⁰Then let my wife grind for another,

And let others sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime;

Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

¹²For it is a fire that consumes to destruction,

And would root out all my increase.

¹³“If I have despised the cause of my male servant

Or of my female servant,

When they contended with me;

¹⁴What then shall I do when God rises up?

When he visits, what shall I answer him?

¹⁵Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him?

Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶“If I have withheld the poor from their desire,

Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel alone,

And the fatherless has not eaten of it

¹⁸(No, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

Her have I guided from my mother’s womb);

¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing,

Or that the needy had no covering;

²⁰If his heart hasn’t blessed me,

If he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;

²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,

Because I saw my help in the gate:

²²Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade,

And my arm be broken from the bone.

²³For calamity from God is a terror to me,

By reason of his majesty I can do nothing.

²⁴“If I have made gold my hope,

And have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’

²⁵If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,

And because my hand had gotten much;

²⁶If I have seen the sun when it shined,

Or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷And my heart has been secretly enticed,

My hand threw a kiss from my mouth:

²⁸This also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;

For I should have denied the God who is above.

²⁹“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me,

Or lifted up myself when evil found him;

³⁰(Yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin

By asking his life with a curse);

³¹If the men of my tent have not said,

‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’

³²(The foreigner has not lodged in the street;

But I have opened my doors to the traveler);

³³If like Adam I have covered my transgressions,

By hiding my iniquity in my heart,

³⁴Because I feared the great multitude,

And the contempt of families terrified me,

So that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door„

³⁵Oh that I had one to hear me!

(Behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me);

Let the accuser write my indictment!

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;

And I would bind it to me as a crown.

³⁷I would declare to him the number of my steps.

As a prince would I go near to him.

³⁸If my land cries out against me,

And the furrows of it weep together;

³⁹If I have eaten the fruits of it without money,

Or have caused the owners of it to lose their life:

⁴⁰Let briars grow instead of wheat,

And stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.