Job 31

Job’s Final Appeal

¹“I have made a covenant with my eyes.

How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?1

²For what is the allotment of God from above,

or the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Does not disaster come to the unjust

and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Does He not see my ways

and count my every step?

⁵If I have walked in falsehood

or my foot has rushed to deceit,

⁶let God weigh me with honest scales,

that He may know my integrity.

⁷If my steps have turned from the path,

if my heart has followed my eyes,

or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

⁸then may another eat what I have sown,

and may my crops be uprooted.

⁹If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife,

or I have lurked at his door,

¹⁰then may my own wife grind grain for another,

and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime,

an iniquity to be judged.1

¹²For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon;

it would root out my entire harvest.

¹³If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant

when they made a complaint against me,

¹⁴what will I do when God rises to judge?

How will I answer when called to account?

¹⁵Did not He who made me in the womb also make them?

Did not the same One form us in the womb?

¹⁶If I have denied the desires of the poor

or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

¹⁷if I have eaten my morsel alone,

not sharing it with the fatherless—

¹⁸though from my youth I reared him as would a father,

and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

¹⁹if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing,

or a needy man without a cloak,

²⁰if his heart has not blessed me

for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

²¹if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless

because I saw that I had support in the gate,

²²then may my arm fall from my shoulder

and be torn from its socket.

²³For calamity from God terrifies me,

and His splendor I cannot overpower.

²⁴If I have put my trust in gold

or called pure gold my security,

²⁵if I have rejoiced in my great wealth

because my hand had gained so much,

²⁶if I have beheld the sun in its radiance

or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷so that my heart was secretly enticed

and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

²⁸this would also be an iniquity to be judged,

for I would have denied God on high.

²⁹If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin,

or exulted when evil befell him—

³⁰I have not allowed my mouth to sin

by asking for his life with a curse—

³¹if the men of my house have not said,

‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—

³²but no stranger had to lodge on the street,

for my door has been open to the traveler—

³³if I have covered my transgressions like Adam

by hiding my guilt in my heart,

³⁴because I greatly feared the crowds

and the contempt of the clans terrified me,

so that I kept silent

and would not go outside—

³⁵(Oh, that I had one to hear me!

Here is my signature.

Let the Almighty answer me;

let my accuser compose an indictment.

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder

and wear it like a crown.

³⁷I would give account of all my steps;

I would approach Him like a prince.)—

³⁸if my land cries out against me

and its furrows weep together,

³⁹if I have devoured its produce without payment

or broken the spirit of its tenants,

⁴⁰then let briers grow instead of wheat

and stinkweed instead of barley.”

Thus conclude the words of Job.