Job Chapter 31 of 42 about 3 min read

Job 31

What happens in this chapter

Chapter summary coming soon.

Verse 1. “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

Verse 2. For what is the allotment of God from above, or the heritage from the Almighty on high?

Verse 3. Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

Verse 4. Does He not see my ways and count my every step?

Verse 5. If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,

Verse 6. let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

Verse 7. If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

Verse 8. then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

Verse 9. If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,

Verse 10. then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

Verse 11. For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

Verse 12. For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon; it would root out my entire harvest.

Verse 13. If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

Verse 14. what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

Verse 15. Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

Verse 16. If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

Verse 17. if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

Verse 18. though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

Verse 19. if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,

Verse 20. if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

Verse 21. if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

Verse 22. then may my arm fall from my shoulder and be torn from its socket.

Verse 23. For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

Verse 24. If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,

Verse 25. if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,

Verse 26. if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

Verse 27. so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

Verse 28. this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.

Verse 29. If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

Verse 30. I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse—

Verse 31. if the men of my house have not said, ‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—

Verse 32. but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler—

Verse 33. if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

Verse 34. because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

Verse 35. (Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.

Verse 36. Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and wear it like a crown.

Verse 37. I would give account of all my steps; I would approach Him like a prince.)—

Verse 38. if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,

Verse 39. if I have devoured its produce without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,

Verse 40. then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.