Job 31:1–40

¹“A covenant I have concluded with my eyes.
So how could I show myself attentive to a virgin?

²And what portion is there from God above,
Or inheritance from the Almighty from on high?

³Is there not disaster for a wrongdoer,
And misfortune for those practicing what is hurtful?

⁴Does he not himself see my ways
And count even all my steps?

⁵If I have walked with [men of] untruth,
And my foot hastens to deception,
⁶He will weigh me in accurate scales
And God will get to know my integrity.

⁷If my stepping deviates from the way,
Or my heart has walked merely after my eyes,
Or any defect has stuck in my own palms,
⁸Let me sow seed and someone else eat,
And let my own descendants be rooted out.

⁹If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,
And I kept lying in wait at the very entranceway of my companion,
¹⁰Let my wife do the grinding for another man,
And over her let other men kneel down.

¹¹For that would be loose conduct,
And that would be an error for [attention by] the justices.

¹²For that is a fire that would eat clear to destruction,
And among all my produce it would take root.

¹³If I used to refuse the judgment of my slave man
Or of my slave girl in their case at law with me,
¹⁴Then what can I do when God rises up?
And when he calls for an accounting, what can I answer him?

¹⁵Did not the One making me in the belly make him,
And did not just One proceed to prepare us in the womb?

¹⁶If I used to hold back the lowly ones from [their] delight,
And the eyes of the widow I would cause to fail,
¹⁷And I used to eat my morsel by myself,
While the fatherless boy did not eat from it
¹⁸(For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
And from the belly of my mother I kept leading her);
¹⁹If I used to see anyone perishing from having no garment,
Or that the poor one had no covering;
²⁰If his loins did not bless me,
Nor from the shorn wool of my young rams he would warm himself;
²¹If I waved my hand to and fro against the fatherless boy,
When I would see [need of] my assistance in the gate,
²²Let my own shoulder blade fall from its shoulder,
And let my own arm be broken from its upper bone.

²³For disaster from God was a dread to me,
And against his dignity I could not hold out.

²⁴If I have put gold as my confidence,
Or to gold I have said, ‘You are my trust!’

²⁵If I used to rejoice because my property was much,
And because my hand had found a lot of things;
²⁶If I used to see the light when it would flash forth,
Or the precious moon walking along,
²⁷And my heart began to be enticed in secrecy
And my hand proceeded to kiss my mouth,
²⁸That too would be an error for [attention by] the justices,
For I should have denied the [true] God above.

²⁹If I used to rejoice at the extinction of one intensely hating me,
Or I felt excited because evil had found him—
³⁰And I did not allow my palate to sin
By asking for an oath against his soul.

³¹If the men of my tent did not say,
‘Who can produce anyone that has not been satisfied from food of his?’—
³²Outside no alien resident would spend the night;
My doors I kept open to the path.

³³If like an earthling man I covered over my transgressions
By hiding my error in my shirt pocket—
³⁴Because I would suffer a shock at a large crowd,
Or the contempt itself of families would terrorize me
And I would keep silent, I would not go out of the entrance.

³⁵O that I had someone listening to me,
That according to my signature the Almighty himself would answer me!
Or that the individual in the case at law with me had written a document itself!

³⁶Surely upon my shoulder I would carry it;
I would bind it around me like a grand crown.

³⁷The number of my steps I would tell him;
Like a leader I would approach him.

³⁸If against me my own ground would cry for aid,
And together its furrows themselves would weep;
³⁹If its fruitage I have eaten without money,
And the soul of its owners I have caused to pant,
⁴⁰Instead of wheat let the thorny weed go forth,
And instead of barley stinking weeds.”

The words of Job have come to an end.