Job 31

Job's Final Defense of His Integrity and Righteousness

3 min read

1 I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think on a maid?
2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4 Does not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot has hurried to deceit;
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know my integrity.
7 If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any blot has stuck to my hands;
8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yes, let my offspring be rooted out.
9 If my heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door;
10 Then let my wife grind to another, and let others bow down on her.
11 For this is an heinous crime; yes, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
12 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.
13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;
14 What then shall I do when God rises up? and when he visits, what shall I answer him?
15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?
16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless has not eaten thereof;
18 (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)
19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
22 Then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.
23 For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.
24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, You are my confidence;
25 If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;
26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
27 And my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand:
28 This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.
29 If I rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:
30 Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
32 The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the travelers.
33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom:
34 Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?
35 Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that my adversary had written a book.
36 Surely I would take it on my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.
37 I would declare to him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near to him.
38 If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
39 If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
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