Job 31:1–23

“I made an agreement with my eyes.

I promised not to look at another woman with sexual longing.

²What do human beings receive from God above?

What do they get from the Mighty One in heaven?

³Sinful people are destroyed.

Trouble comes to those who do what is wrong.

⁴Doesn’t God see how I live?

Doesn’t he count every step I take?

⁵“I haven’t told any lies.

My feet haven’t hurried to cheat others.

⁶So let God weigh me in honest scales.

Then he’ll know I haven’t done anything wrong.

⁷Suppose my steps have turned away from the right path.

Suppose my heart has longed for what my eyes have seen.

Or suppose my hands have become ‘unclean.’

⁸Then may others eat what I’ve planted.

May my crops be pulled up by the roots.

⁹“Suppose my heart has been tempted by a woman.

Or suppose I’ve prowled around my neighbor’s door.

¹⁰Then may my wife grind another man’s grain.

May other men have sex with her.

¹¹Wanting another woman would have been a shameful thing.

It would have been a sin that should be judged.

¹²It’s like a fire that burns down to the grave.

It would have caused my crops to be pulled up by the roots.

¹³“Suppose I haven’t treated my male and female servants fairly

when they’ve brought charges against me.

¹⁴Then what will I do when God opposes me?

What answer will I give him

when he asks me to explain myself?

¹⁵Didn’t he who made me make my servants also?

Didn’t the same God form us inside our mothers?

¹⁶“I haven’t said no to what poor people have wanted.

I haven’t let widows lose their hope.

¹⁷I haven’t kept my bread to myself.

I’ve shared it with children whose fathers had died.

¹⁸From the time I was young, I’ve helped those widows.

I’ve raised those children as a father would.

¹⁹Suppose I’ve seen people dying

because they didn’t have any clothes.

I’ve seen needy people

who had nothing to wear.

²⁰And they didn’t give me their blessing

when I warmed them with wool from my sheep.

²¹Suppose I’ve raised my hand

against children whose fathers have died.

And I did it because I knew

I had power in the courts.

²²Then let my arm fall from my shoulder.

Let it be broken off at the joint.

²³I was afraid God would destroy me.

His glory terrifies me.

So I’d never do things like that.