Job 31

1 I made a covenant with my eyes. How then should I look upon a virgin?

2 For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?

3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

4 Does he not see my ways, and number all my steps?

5 If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hastened to deceit

6 (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

7 if my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any spot has clung 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 has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor's door,

10 then let my wife grind to another, and let others bow down upon her.

11 For that is a heinous crime, yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.

13 If I have despised the case of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they contended with me,

14 what then shall I do when God rises up? And when he visits, what shall I answer him?

15 Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not 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,

17 or 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, and her I have guided from my mother's womb);

19 if I have seen any perish for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

20 if his loins have not blessed me, and if he has not been 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 my arm be broken from the bone.

23 For calamity from God is a terror to me, and I can do nothing because of his majesty.

24 If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, Thou are my confidence;

25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

26 if I have beheld the sun when it shone, or the moon walking in brightness,

27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand

28 (this also is an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the God that is above);

29 if I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him

30 (yea, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);

31 if the men of my tent have not said, Who can find one who has not been filled with his food?

32 (the sojourner has not lodged in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);

33 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions by hiding my iniquity in my bosom

34 because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me so that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door-

35 O that I had someone to hear me (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me), and that I had the indictment which my adversary has written!

36 Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder. I would bind it to me as a crown.

37 I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him as a prince.

38 If my land cries out against me, and the furrows of it weep together;

39 if I have eaten the fruits of it without money, or have caused the owners of it to lose their lives,

40 let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.