Job 31:1–23

¹A covenant I made for mine eyes, And what—do I attend to a virgin? ²And what is the portion of God from above? And the inheritance of the Mighty from the heights? ³Is not calamity to the perverse? And strangeness to workers of iniquity? ⁴Doth not He see my ways, And all my steps number? ⁵If I have walked with vanity, And my foot doth hasten to deceit, ⁶He doth weigh me in righteous balances, And God doth know my integrity. ⁷If my step doth turn aside from the way, And after mine eyes hath my heart gone, And to my hands cleaved hath blemish, ⁸Let me sow—and another eat, And my products let be rooted out.

⁹If my heart hath been enticed by woman, And by the opening of my neighbour I laid wait, ¹⁰Grind to another let my wife, And over her let others bend. ¹¹For it is a wicked thing, and a judicial iniquity; ¹²For a fire it is, to destruction it consumeth, And among all mine increase doth take root, ¹³If I despise the cause of my man-servant, And of my handmaid, In their contending with me, ¹⁴Then what do I do when God ariseth? And when He doth inspect, What do I answer Him? ¹⁵Did not He that made me in the womb make him? Yea, prepare us in the womb doth One.

¹⁶If I withhold from pleasure the poor, And the eyes of the widow do consume, ¹⁷And I do eat my morsel by myself, And the orphan hath not eat of it, ¹⁸(But from my youth He grew up with me as with a father, And from the belly of my mother I am led.) ¹⁹If I see any perishing without clothing, And there is no covering to the needy, ²⁰If his loins have not blessed me, And from the fleece of my sheep He doth not warm himself, ²¹If I have waved at the fatherless my hand, When I see in him the gate of my court, ²²My shoulder from its blade let fall, And mine arm from the bone be broken. ²³For a dread unto me is calamity from God, And because of His excellency I am not able.