Hiob 31

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

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