Job 31
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.