Job 31 — The Holy Bible

Job Sets Forth His Integrity

“I have made a covenant with my eyes,

And I will not think upon a virgin.

What has God apportioned from above,

And what is the inheritance of the Mighty One from on high?

Is not destruction for the wrongdoer,

And alienation for those who do lawlessness?

Will He not see my way and count all my steps?

“If I have walked with scorners,

Or if my foot has hastened to deceit,

May He weigh me therefore with a just scale,

For He knows my integrity.

If my foot has turned from the way,

Or if my heart has followed after my eyes,

Or if gifts have touched my hands,

Then may I sow and others eat.

Yes, may I be uprooted on the earth.

“If my heart has followed after another man's wife,

Or if I have laid wait at her door,

Then also may my wife please another,

And may my children be humiliated.

For the rage of anger is uncontrollable

In defiling another man's wife.

For it is a fire burning on every side,

And whomever it comes upon, it destroys at the roots.

If I have despised the judgment of my servant or handmaid

When they judged me,

What then will I do when the Lord brings me to trial and visits me?

How shall I answer Him?

Did not He who made me in the womb make them?

So we were fashioned in the same womb.

“But the weak did not miss whatever they happened to need,

And I did not cause the eyes of the widow to fail.

If I ate my morsel by myself

And did not share it with the orphan

(But from my youth I nourished them as a father,

And from my mother's womb I guided the widow);

If I have neglected the naked as he was perishing

And did not clothe him;

If the weak did not bless me,

And if their shoulders were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs;

If I raised my hand against the orphan,

Trusting that my strength was far superior to his,

Then let my shoulder fall from my collarbone;

Let my arm be torn from its socket.

For the fear of the Lord seized me,

And I cannot endure His burden.

If I have made gold my strength

Or trusted the precious stone,

If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,

And if I, too, laid my hand on countless treasures

(Or do I not see the shining sun eclipsed and the moon waning?

For this does not depend upon them);

If my heart has been secretly deceived,

And if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it,

Then may this also be reckoned to me

As the greatest lawlessness;

For I have lied against the Lord most high.

“If I, too, was glad at the fall of my enemies,

And my heart said, ‘Good! Well done!’

Then may my ear hear my curse,

And may I be a byword among my people in my affliction.

If my handmaids have often said,

‘Who may give us his meat to be satisfied?’

(But I was very kind.

For the stranger did not spend the night outside;

And my door was opened to everyone who came);

If I sinned involuntarily, then covered my sin,

(For I did not stand in awe of great multitude,

So as not to confess before them);

And if I permitted a poor man to go out of my door

With an empty bosom

(Who may listen to me?);

And if I had not feared the hand of the Lord,

And as to the document I had against someone,

I would place it as a crown on my shoulders and read it,

And if I did not tear it up and return it,

Having taken nothing from the debtor;

“If at any time the land groaned against me

And its furrows wept together,

If I have eaten its strength alone without paying,

Or if I also grieved the soul of the owner of the land

By casting him out,

Then may the nettle come to me instead of wheat,

And bramble instead of barley.”

Thus Job ceased speaking.