[24] “If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’ [25] if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, [26] if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, [27] so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, [28] then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high. [29] “If I have rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him— [30] I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against their life— [31] if those of my household have never said, ‘Who has not been filled with Job’s meat?’— [32] but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler— [33] if I have concealed my sin as people do, by hiding my guilt in my heart [34] because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside— [35] (“Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. [36] Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. [37] I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler.)— [38] “if my land cries out against me and all its furrows are wet with tears, [39] if I have devoured its yield without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants, [40] then let briers come up instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
