Job 31

Job’s Final Appeal

¹ “I have made a covenant with my eyes.

How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

² For what is the allotment of God from above,

or the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³ Does not disaster come to the unjust

and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

⁴ Does He not see my ways

and count my every step?

⁵ If I have walked in falsehood

or my foot has rushed to deceit,

⁶ let God weigh me with honest scales,

that He may know my integrity.

⁷ If my steps have turned from the path,

if my heart has followed my eyes,

or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

⁸ then may another eat what I have sown,

and may my crops be uprooted.

⁹ If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife,

or I have lurked at his door,

¹⁰ then may my own wife grind grain for another,

and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹ For that would be a heinous crime,

an iniquity to be judged.

¹² For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon;^a

it would root out my entire harvest.

¹³ If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant

when they made a complaint against me,

¹⁴ what will I do when God rises to judge?

How will I answer when called to account?

¹⁵ Did not He who made me in the womb also make them?

Did not the same One form us in the womb?

¹⁶ If I have denied the desires of the poor

or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

¹⁷ if I have eaten my morsel alone,

not sharing it with the fatherless—

¹⁸ though from my youth I reared him as would a father,

and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

¹⁹ if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing,

or a needy man without a cloak,

²⁰ if his heart has not blessed me^b

for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless

because I saw that I had support in the gate,

²² then may my arm fall from my shoulder

and be torn from its socket.

²³ For calamity from God terrifies me,

and His splendor I cannot overpower.

²⁴ If I have put my trust in gold

or called pure gold my security,

²⁵ if I have rejoiced in my great wealth

because my hand had gained so much,

²⁶ if I have beheld the sun^c in its radiance

or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷ so that my heart was secretly enticed

and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

²⁸ this would also be an iniquity to be judged,

for I would have denied God on high.

²⁹ If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin,

or exulted when evil befell him—

³⁰ I have not allowed my mouth to sin

by asking for his life with a curse—

³¹ if the men of my house have not said,

‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—

³² but no stranger had to lodge on the street,

for my door has been open to the traveler—

³³ if I have covered my transgressions like Adam^d

by hiding my guilt in my heart,

³⁴ because I greatly feared the crowds

and the contempt of the clans terrified me,

so that I kept silent

and would not go outside—

³⁵ (Oh, that I had one to hear me!

Here is my signature.

Let the Almighty answer me;

let my accuser compose an indictment.

³⁶ Surely I would carry it on my shoulder

and wear it like a crown.

³⁷ I would give account of all my steps;

I would approach Him like a prince.)—

³⁸ if my land cries out against me

and its furrows weep together,

³⁹ if I have devoured its produce without payment

or broken the spirit of its tenants,

⁴⁰ then let briers grow instead of wheat

and stinkweed instead of barley.”

Thus conclude the words of Job.