NHEBME - Job - 31

31:1  "I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

31:2  For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?

31:3  Is it not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity?

31:4  Doesn't he see my ways, and number all my steps?

31:5  "If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit

31:6  (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

31:7  if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

31:8  then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

31:9  "If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,

31:10  then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

31:11  For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

31:12  For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.

31:13  "If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me;

31:14  What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?

31:15  Did not he who made me in the womb make him? Did not the same one fashion us in the womb?

31:16  "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

31:17  or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it

31:18  (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her have I guided from my mother's womb);

31:19  if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

31:20  if his heart hasn't blessed me, if he hasn't been warmed with my sheep's fleece;

31:21  if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,

31:22  then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.

31:23  For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because his majesty, I can do nothing.

31:24  "If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, 'You are my confidence;'

31:25  If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

31:26  if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,

31:27  and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

31:28  this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above.

31:29  "If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him;

31:30  (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);

31:31  if the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?'

31:32  (the foreigner has not lodged in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);

31:33  if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

31:34  because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door-

31:35  oh that I had one to hear me! (behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me); let the accuser write my indictment!

31:36  Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown.

31:37  I would declare to him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near to him.

31:38  If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;

31:39  if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,

31:40  let briars grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.