Job 31

₁I made a covenant with mine eyes;

Why then should I think upon a maid?

₂For what portion of God is there from above?

And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

₃Is not destruction to the wicked?

And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

₄Doth not he see my ways,

And count all my steps?

₅If I have walked with vanity,

Or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

₆Let me be weighed in an even balance,

That God may know mine integrity.

₇If my step hath turned out of the way,

And mine heart walked after mine eyes,

And if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

₈Then let me sow, and let another eat;

Yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

₉If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,

Or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

₁₀Then let my wife grind unto another,

And let others bow down upon her.

₁₁For this is an heinous crime;

Yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

₁₂For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction,

And would root out all mine increase.

₁₃If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant,

When they contended with me;

₁₄What then shall I do when God riseth up?

And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

₁₅Did not he that made me in the womb make him?

And did not one fashion us in the womb?

₁₆If I have withheld the poor from their desire,

Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

₁₇Or have eaten my morsel myself alone,

And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

₁₈(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father,

And I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

₁₉If I have seen any perish for want of clothing,

Or any poor without covering;

₂₀If his loins have not blessed me,

And if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

₂₁If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,

When I saw my help in the gate:

₂₂Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade,

And mine arm be broken from the bone.

₂₃For destruction from God was a terror to me,

And by reason of his highness I could not endure.

₂₄If I have made gold my hope,

Or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

₂₅If I rejoiced because my wealth was great,

And because mine hand had gotten much;

₂₆If I beheld the sun when it shined,

Or the moon walking in brightness;

₂₇And my heart hath been secretly enticed,

Or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

₂₈This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge:

For I should have denied the God that is above.

₂₉If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,

Or lifted up myself when evil found him:

₃₀Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin

By wishing a curse to his soul.

₃₁If the men of my tabernacle said not,

Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

₃₂The stranger did not lodge in the street:

But I opened my doors to the traveller.

₃₃If I covered my transgressions as Adam,

By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

₃₄Did I fear a great multitude,

Or did the contempt of families terrify me,

That I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

₃₅Oh that one would hear me!

Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me,

And that mine adversary had written a book.

₃₆Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,

And bind it as a crown to me.

₃₇I would declare unto him the number of my steps;

As a prince would I go near unto him.

₃₈If my land cry against me,

Or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

₃₉If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,

Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

₄₀Let thistles grow instead of wheat,

And cockle instead of barley.