AB - Job - 31

31:1  I made a covenant with my eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin.

31:2  Now what portion has God given from above? And is there an inheritance given of the Mighty One from on high?

31:3  Alas! Destruction to the unrighteous, and rejection to them that do iniquity!

31:4  Will He not see my way, and number all my steps?

31:5  But if I had gone with scorners, and if my foot too has hastened to deceit:

31:6  (for I am weighed in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence:)

31:7  if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if my heart has followed my eye, and if I too have touched gifts with my hands;

31:8  then let me sow, and let others eat; and let me be uprooted on the earth.

31:9  If my heart has gone forth after another man's wife, and if I laid wait at her doors;

31:10  then let my wife also please another, and let my children be brought low.

31:11  For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, in the case of defiling another man's wife.

31:12  For it is a fire burning on every side, and whoever it attacks, it utterly destroys.

31:13  And if I also despised the judgment of my servant or my handmaid, when they pleaded with me;

31:14  what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? And if also He should at all visit me, can I make an answer?

31:15  Were not they formed too, as I also was formed in the womb? Yea, we were formed in the same womb.

31:16  But the helpless missed not whatever need they had, and I did not cause the eye of the widow to fail.

31:17  And if I also ate my morsel alone, and did not impart of it to the orphan;

31:18  (for I nourished them as a father from my youth and guided them from my mother's womb.)

31:19  And if I too overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him;

31:20  and if the poor did not bless me, and their shoulders were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs;

31:21  if I lifted my hand against an orphan, trusting that my strength was far superior to his:

31:22  then let my shoulder start from the blade bone, and my arm be crushed off from the elbow.

31:23  For the fear of the Lord constrained me, and I cannot bear up by reason of His burden.

31:24  If I made gold my treasure, and if I too trusted the precious stone;

31:25  and if I also rejoiced when my wealth was abundant, and if I laid my hand on innumerable treasures:

31:26  (do we not see the shining sun eclipsed, and the moon waning? For they have not power to continue:)

31:27  and if my heart was secretly deceived, and if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it:

31:28  let this also then be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity: for I should have lied against the Lord Most High.

31:29  And if I too was glad at the fall of my enemies, and my heart said, Aha!

31:30  Then let my ear hear my curse, and let me be a byword among my people in my affliction.

31:31  And if my handmaids have often said, Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh; (whereas I was very kind:

31:32  for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to everyone that came:)

31:33  or if also having sinned unintentionally, I hid my sin;

31:34  (for I did not stand in awe of a great multitude, so as not to declare boldly before them:) and if I also permitted a poor man to go out of my door with an empty bosom-

31:35  (Oh that I had a hearer!) And if I had not feared the hand of the Lord; and as to the written charge which I had against anyone,

31:36  I would place it as a chaplet on my shoulders, and read it.

31:37  And if I did not read it and return it, having taken nothing from the debtor:

31:38  If at any time the land groaned against me, and if its furrows mourned together;

31:39  and if I ate its strength alone without price, and if I too grieved the heart of the owner of the soil, by taking from him,

31:40  then let the thistles come up to me instead of wheat, and a bramble instead of barley. And Job ceased speaking.