Job 31

1 I made a covenant with mine eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin.

2 Now what portion has God given from above? and is there an inheritance [given] of the Mighty One from the highest?

3 Alas! destruction to the unrighteous, and rejection to them that do iniquity.

4 Will he not see my way, and number all my steps?

5 But if I had gone with scorners, and if too my foot has hasted to deceit:

6 (for I am weighed in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence: )

7 if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if mine heart has followed mine eye, and if too I have touched gifts with my hands;

8 then let me sow, and let others eat; and let me be uprooted on the earth.

9 If my heart has gone forth after another man's wife, and if I laid wait at her doors;

10 then let my wife also please another, and let my children be brought low.

11 For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, [in the case] of defiling [another] man's wife.

12 For it is a fire burning on every side, and whomsoever it attacks, it utterly destroys.

13 And if too I despised the judgment of my servant or [my] handmaid, when they pleaded with me;

14 what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? and if also he should at all visit me, can I make an answer?

15 Were not they too formed as I also was formed in the womb? yea, we were formed in the same womb.

16 But the helpless missed not whatever need they had, and I did not cause the eye of the widow to fail.

17 And if too I ate my morsel alone, and did not impart [of it] to the orphan;

18 (for I nourished [them] as a father from my youth and guided [them] from my mother's womb.)

19 And if too I overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him;

20 and if the poor did not bless me, and their shoulders were [not] warmed with the fleece of my lambs;

21 if I lifted my hand against an orphan, trusting that my strength was far superior [to his]:

22 let them my shoulder start from the blade-bone, and my arm be crushed off from the elbow.

23 For the fear of the Lord constrained me, and I cannot bear up by reason of his burden.

24 If I made gold my treasure, and if too I trusted the precious stone;

25 and if too I rejoiced when my wealth was abundant, and if too I laid my hand on innumerable [treasures]:

26 (do we not see the shining sun eclipsed, and the moon waning? for they have not [power to continue]: )

27 and if my heart was secretly deceived, and if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it:

28 let this also then be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity: for I [should] have lied against the Lord Most High.

29 And if too I was glad at the fall of mine enemies, and mine heart said, Aha!

30 let then mine ear hear my curse, and let me be a byword among my people in my affliction.

31 And if too my handmaids have often said, Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh; (whereas I was very kind:

32 for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to every one that came: )

33 or if too having sinned unintentionally, I hid my sin;

34 (for I did not stand in awe of a great multitude, so as not to declare boldly before them: ) and if too I permitted a poor man to go out of my door with an empty bosom:

35 (Oh that I had a hearer, ) and if I had not feared the hand of the Lord; and [as to] the written charge which I had against any one,

36 I would place [it] as a chaplet on my shoulders, and read it.

37 And if I did not read it and return it, having taken nothing from the debtor:

38 If at any time the land groaned against me, and if its furrows mourned together;

39 and if I ate its strength alone without price, and if I too grieved the heart of the owner of the soil, by taking [aught] from [him]:

40 then let the nettle come up to me instead of wheat, and a bramble instead of barley. And Job ceased speaking.