Job

Job 31

A Covenant with My Eyes

1 “I made a covenant with my eyes:

I will not set my mind on a virgin.

2 And what has God portioned out from above,

what inheritance comes from the Sufficient One out of the heights?

3 Is it not ruin for the unrighteous man,

and being made a stranger for those who do lawless deeds?

4 Will he not see my road

and count out every one of my steps?

5 If I have walked with mockers,

or if my foot has hurried toward deceit —

6 then let him set me on an honest scale;

the Lord knows my innocence.

7 If my foot has turned aside from the road,

or my heart has followed after my eye,

or my hands have touched gifts —

8 then let me sow and others eat,

and let me be left rootless on the earth.

9 If my heart has gone after another man’s wife,

or if I have lain in wait at her doors —

10 then let my wife please another man,

and let my little children be brought low.

11 For to defile another man’s wife

is a rage of anger that nothing holds back.

12 It is a fire burning on every side,

and wherever it comes it destroys from the roots.

The Case of My Servants

13 If I made light of the case of my servant or my servant woman

when they had a dispute with me —

14 then what will I do if the Lord examines me?

And if he calls me to account, what answer will I make?

15 Were they not made in the womb, just as I was made?

We came to be in the same belly.

16 The helpless never failed to get from me whatever they needed,

and I never made the widow’s eye waste away.

17 If I ate my morsel alone

and did not share it with the orphan —

18 for from my youth I brought them up like a father,

and from my mother’s womb I guided them —

19 if I looked past a naked man perishing

and did not clothe him,

20 if the helpless did not bless me

and their shoulders were not warmed by the shearing of my lambs,

21 if I raised my hand against an orphan,

trusting that plenty of help stood around me —

22 then let my shoulder come away from the collarbone,

and let my arm be broken off at the elbow.

23 For the fear of the Lord held me fast,

and I cannot hold out under the weight of him.

Gold, and the Sun and the Moon

24 If I made gold my strength,

or put my trust in costly stone,

25 if I was glad when great wealth came to me,

or laid my hand on things past counting —

26 do I not see the sun, for all its blazing, go out,

and the moon waste away?

It does not rest with them.

27 And if my heart was secretly led astray,

or if I put my hand to my mouth and kissed it,

28 then let that be counted against me as the greatest lawlessness,

for I would have lied in the face of the Lord Most High.

29 If I gloated over the fall of my enemies

and my heart said, ‘Good!’ —

30 then let my own ear hear my curse,

and let my people talk of me as a man brought down.

31 And if my servant women often said,

‘Who will give us our fill of his meat?’ —

and I was very good to them;

32 no stranger ever slept outside,

and my door stood open to everyone who came;

33 and if I sinned without meaning to and then hid my sin —

34 for I was never so cowed by a great crowd

that I would not speak out in front of them —

and if I let a helpless man go out my door with an empty fold in his cloak,

35 who will give me a hearer?

If I had not feared the hand of the Lord —

and as for the written bond I held against a man,

36 I would have put it round my shoulders like a crown and read it out,

37 and if I did not tear it up and hand it back, taking nothing from the debtor —

If the Land Itself Groaned

38 if the land ever groaned against me,

and its furrows wept together,

39 if I ate its strength alone and paid nothing for it,

or drove out the owner of the land and grieved his soul —

40 then let nettles come up for me instead of wheat,

and brambles instead of barley.”

And Job stopped speaking.