Job 31

1 “I made a covenant for my eyes, And how do I attend to a virgin?

2 And what [is] the portion of God from above? And the inheritance of the Mighty from the heights?

3 Is not calamity to the perverse? And strangeness to workers of iniquity?

4 Does He not see my ways, And number all my steps?

5 If I have walked with vanity, And my foot hurries to deceit,

6 He weighs me in righteous balances, And God knows my integrity.

7 If my step turns aside from the way, And my heart has gone after my eyes, And blemish has cleaved to my hands,

8 Let me sow—and another eat, And let my products be rooted out.

9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman, And I laid wait by the opening of my neighbor,

10 Let my wife grind to another, And let others bend over her.

11 For it [is] a wicked thing, and a judicial iniquity;

12 For it [is] a fire, it consumes to destruction, And takes root among all my increase,

13 If I despise the cause of my manservant, And of my handmaid, In their contending with me,

14 Then what do I do when God arises? And when He inspects, What do I answer Him?

15 Did He that made me in the womb not make him? Indeed, One prepares us in the womb.

16 If I withhold the poor from pleasure, And consume the eyes of the widow,

17 And I eat my morsel by myself, And the orphan has nothing [to] eat of it,

18 (But from my youth He grew up with me as [with] a father, And from the belly of my mother I am led),

19 If I see [any] perishing without clothing, And there is no covering for the needy,

20 If his loins have not blessed me, And from the fleece of my sheep He does not warm himself,

21 If I have waved my hand at the fatherless, When I see [him] in the gate of my court,

22 Let my shoulder fall from its blade, And the bone from my arm be broken.

23 For calamity [from] God [is] a dread to me, And because of His excellence I am not able.

24 If I have made gold my confidence, And to the pure gold have said, My trust;

25 If I rejoice because my wealth [is] great, And because my hand has found abundance,

26 If I see the light when it shines, And the precious moon walking,

27 And my heart is enticed in secret, And my hand kisses my mouth,

28 It also [is] a judicial iniquity, For I had lied to God above.

29 If I rejoice at the ruin of my hater, And stirred up myself when evil found him,

30 Indeed, I have not permitted my mouth to sin, To ask with an oath his life.

31 If not, say, O men of my tent: O that we had of his flesh, we are not satisfied.

32 A stranger does not lodge in the street, I open my doors to the traveler.

33 If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, To hide my iniquity in my bosom,

34 Because I fear a great multitude, And the contempt of families frightens me, Then I am silent, I do not go out of the opening.

35 Who gives to me a hearing? Behold, my mark. The Mighty One answers me, And my adversary has written a bill.

36 If not—on my shoulder I take it up, I bind it [as] a crown on myself.

37 The number of my steps I tell Him, As a leader I approach Him.

38 If my land cries out against me, And together its furrows weep,

39 If I consumed its strength without money, And the life of its possessors, I have caused to breathe out,

40 Instead of wheat let a thorn go forth, And instead of barley a useless weed!” The words of Job are finished.