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31:1  “I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid?
31:2  For what portion from God is there from above, and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
31:3  Is not destruction for the wicked, and a strange punishment for the workers of iniquity?
31:4  Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?
31:5  If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hastened to deceit,
31:6  let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
31:7  If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands,
31:8  then let me sow and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
31:9  “If mine heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
31:10  then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her.
31:11  For this is a heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
31:12  For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.
31:13  “If I have despised the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant when they contended with me,
31:14  what then shall I do when God riseth up? And when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?
31:15  Did not He that made me in the womb make him? And did not One fashion us in the womb?
31:16  “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
31:17  or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof
31:18  (for from my youth he was brought up with me as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb);
31:19  if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
31:20  if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
31:21  if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate”
31:22  then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.
31:23  For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of His highness I could not endure.
31:24  “If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, ‘Thou art my confidence’;
31:25  if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;
31:26  if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness,
31:27  and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand—
31:28  this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge, for I should have denied the God that is above.
31:29  “If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him,
31:30  neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
31:31  If the men of my tent said not, ‘Oh that we had of his flesh! We cannot be satisfied’.
31:32  The stranger did not lodge in the street, but I opened my doors to the traveler.
31:33  If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom,
31:34  did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence and went not out of the door?
31:35  Oh, that One would hear me! Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book!
31:36  Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.
31:37  I would declare unto Him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto Him.
31:38  “If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain,
31:39  if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life,
31:40  let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.