Job 31:1–23

¹I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid? ²For what would have been my portion of †God from above, and what the heritage of the Almighty from on high? ³Is not calamity for the unrighteous? and misfortune for the workers of iniquity? ⁴Doth not he see my ways, and number all my steps? ⁵If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot hath hasted to deceit, ⁶(Let me be weighed in an even balance, and †God will take knowledge of my blamelessness;) ⁷If my step have turned out of the way, and my heart followed mine eyes, and if any blot cleaveth to my hands; ⁸Let me sow, and another eat; and let mine offspring be rooted out.

⁹If my heart have been enticed unto a woman, so that I laid wait at my neighbour’s door, ¹⁰Let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity to be judged by the judges: ¹²For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. ¹³If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me, ¹⁴What then should I do when •God riseth up? and if he visited, what should 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 caused the eyes of the widow to fail; ¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel alone, so that the fatherless ate not thereof, ¹⁸(For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have guided the widow from my mother’s womb;) ¹⁹If I have seen any perishing for want of clothing, or any needy without covering; ²⁰If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs; ²¹If I have lifted up my hand against an orphan, because I saw my help in the gate: ²²Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone! ²³For calamity from •God was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I was powerless.