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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹² For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon;¹ it would root out my entire harvest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

²⁰ if his heart has not blessed me ² for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

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

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

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

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

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

²⁶ if I have beheld the sun ³ in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

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

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

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

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

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

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

³³ if I have covered my transgressions like Adam ⁴ by hiding my guilt in my heart,

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—

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

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

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

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

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

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