Job (JPS) - Chapter 31

1: I made a covenant with mine eyes;
how then should I look upon a maid?
2: For what would be the portion of God from above, and the heritage of the Almighty from on high?
3: Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
4: Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?
5: If I have walked with vanity, and my foot hath hasted to deceit -
6: Let me be weighed in a just balance, that God may know mine integrity -
7: If my step hath turned out of the way, and my heart walked after mine eyes, and if any spot hath cleaved to my hands;
8: Then let me sow, and let another eat;
yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
9: If my heart have been enticed unto a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbour"s door;
10: Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.
11: For that were a heinous crime;
yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
12: For it is a fire that consumeth unto destruction, and would root out all mine increase.
13: If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me -
14: What then shall I do when God riseth up?
And when He remembereth, what shall I answer Him?
15: Did not He that made me in the womb make him?
And did not One fashion us in the womb?
16: If I have withheld aught that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17: Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof -
18: Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother"s womb.
19: If I have seen any wanderer in want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;
20: If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21: If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate;
22: Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.
23: For calamity from God was a terror to me, and by reason of His majesty I could do nothing.
24: If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold: "Thou art my confidence";
25: If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;
26: If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
27: And my heart hath been secretly enticed, and my mouth hath kissed my hand;
28: This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
for I should have lied to God that is above.
29: If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or exulted when evil found him -
30: Yea, I suffered not my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse.
31: If the men of my tent said not: "Who can find one that hath not been satisfied with his meat?"
32: The stranger did not lodge in the street;
my doors I opened to the roadside.
33: If after the manner of men I covered my transgressions, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom -
34: Because I feared the great multitude, and the most contemptible among families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and went not out of the door.
35: Oh that I had one to hear me!
- Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me - and that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!
36: Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder;
I would bind it unto me as a crown.
37: I would declare unto him the number of my steps;
as a prince would I go near unto him.
38: If my land cry out against me, and the furrows thereof weep together;
39: If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the tillers thereof to be disappointed -
40: Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and noisome weeds instead of barley.
The words of Job are ended.