Job Chapter 31

¹ “I’ve made a covenant with my eyes

not to look with lust at a young woman?

² What is our portion from God above,

our inheritance from the Almighty on high?

³ Isn’t it misfortune for the unjust,

disaster for sinners?

⁴ Doesn’t he see everything I do

and count every step I take?

⁵ “If I’ve supposedly conducted myself falsely

and tried to deceive,

⁶ let him weigh me with accurate scales

and he’ll find out my integrity.

⁷ If I’ve strayed off the road,

if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen,

if any other blemish has stuck to me,

⁸ let somebody else eat what I sow;

let them uproot my crops.                        

Job 31:1-8

⁹ “If a woman enticed me,

if I’ve lurked at my neighbor’s doorway,

¹⁰ may my wife grind for somebody else,

and let others sleep with her.

¹¹ That would be shameful,

a crime judges would punish.

¹² a fire that would consume all the way to Abaddon

and completely burn up everything I own.

Job 31:9-12

¹³ “If I’ve denied claim by my male or female servants,

complaints they filed against me,

¹⁴ how could I face God?

What could I say when he questioned me?

¹⁵ Didn’t the One that made me in the womb make the accuser too?

Didn’t the same One make us both?                     Job 31:13-15

¹⁶ “If I’ve withheld from the poor what they needed

or stifled widows’ hopes,

¹⁷ if I’ve eaten my morsel alone

and a fatherless child hadn’t shared it

(¹⁸ from my youth I reared him like a father,

and from infancy I guided her),

¹⁹ if I’ve seen anybody perish for lack of clothing

or the needy go without clothes,

²⁰ if their loins haven’t thanked me

and been warmed with wool from my sheep,

²¹ if I’ve mistreated the fatherless

because I knew the courts would support me—

²² pull my shoulder out of its socket

and break off my arm at the elbow,

²³ because calamity from God scares me,

because I can’t resist his majesty.           

Job 31:16-23

²⁴ “If I’ve put confidence in gold

and called fine gold my trust,

²⁵ if I’ve gloated because I was wealthy

and had secured so much,

²⁶ if I’ve looked at the shining sun

or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷ and became secretly enticed

and threw it a kiss—

²⁸ that too would’ve been a sin the judges punish,

because I’d have been disloyal to God above.

Job 31:24-28

²⁹ “Have I celebrated my enemy’s ruin

or been happy when disaster fell on him?

³⁰ No, I haven’t let my mouth sin

by asking for his life in a curse.

³¹ “Haven’t the ones in my tent said

there’s no one he’s let go hungry?          

³² No foreigner has had to lodge outside;

I’ve opened my doors to travelers.                       Job 31:29-32

³³ “Have I covered up my sins like people do

by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

³⁴ because I was afraid of the big crowd

and the contempt of families terrified me,

so I kept quiet and didn’t go outside?

³⁵ Oh that somebody would listen!

Here’s my signature on my defense;

let the Almighty answer me!

Oh that my adversary would write out my indictment;

³⁶ I’d carry it openly on my shoulder

or wear it proudly like a crown.

³⁷ I’d declare to God every step I’d taken

and approach him confidently like a prince.       

Job 31:33-37

³⁸ “If my land cries out against me

and my furrows are all wet with tears,

³⁹ if I’ve eaten more than my share of the crops

or broken the spirit of its tenants—

⁴⁰ let briars grow on my land instead of wheat,

stinkweeds in place of barley.”