Job 31:1-40 GW

[1] "I have made an agreement with my eyes. Then how can I look with lust at a virgin? [2] What would God above do to me? What would be my inheritance from the Almighty on high? [3] Aren't there catastrophes for wicked people and disasters for those who do wrong? [4] Doesn't he see my ways and count all my steps? [5] "If I have walked with lies or my feet have run after deception, [6] then let God weigh me on honest scales, and he will know I have integrity. [7] "If my steps have left the proper path, or my heart has followed the desire of my eyes, or my hands are stained with sin, [8] then let someone else eat what I have planted, and let my crops be uprooted. [9] "If I have been seduced by a woman or I have secretly waited near my neighbor's door, [10] then let my wife grind for another man, and let other men kneel over her. [11] That would be a scandal, and that would be a criminal offense. [12] It would be a fire that burns even in Abaddon. It would uproot my entire harvest. [13] "If I have abused the rights of my servants, male or female, when they have disagreed with me, [14] then what could I do if God rises up? If he examines me, how could I answer him? [15] Didn't he who made me in my mother's belly make them? Didn't the same God form us in the womb? [16] "If I have refused the requests of the poor or made a widow's eyes stop looking for help, [17] or have eaten my food alone without letting the orphan eat any of it. . . . [18] (From my youth the orphan grew up with me as though I were his father, and from my birth I treated the widow kindly.) [19] If I have seen anyone die because he had no clothes or a poor person going naked. . . . [20] (If his body didn't bless me, or the wool from my sheep didn't keep him warm. . . .) [21] If I have shaken my fist at an orphan because I knew that others would back me up in court, [22] then let my shoulder fall out of its socket, and let my arm be broken at the elbow. [23] "A disaster from God terrifies me. In the presence of his majesty I can do nothing. [24] "If I put my confidence in gold or said to fine gold, 'I trust you'. . . . [25] If I enjoyed being very rich because my hand had found great wealth. . . . [26] If I saw the light shine or the moon move along in its splendor [27] so that my heart was secretly tempted, and I threw them a kiss with my hand, [28] then that, too, would be a criminal offense, and I would have denied God above. [29] "If I enjoyed the ruin of my enemy or celebrated when harm came to him [30] (even though I didn't speak sinfully by calling down a curse on his life). . . . [31] "If the people who were in my tent had said, 'We wish we had never filled our stomachs with his food'. . . . [32] (The visitor never spent the night outside, because I opened my door to the traveler.) [33] "If I have covered my disobedience like Adam and kept my sin to myself, [34] because I dreaded the large, noisy crowd and because the contempt of the local mobs terrified me so that I kept quiet and didn't go outside. . . . [35] "If only I had someone who would listen to me! Look, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me. Let the prosecutor write his complaint on a scroll. [36] I would certainly carry it on my shoulder and place it on my head like a crown. [37] I would tell him the number of my steps and approach him like a prince. [38] "If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept. . . . [39] If I have eaten its produce without paying for it and made its owners breathe their last, [40] then let it grow thistles instead of wheat, and foul-smelling weeds instead of barley." This is the end of Job's words.