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31:1  “I made a covenant with my eyes not to pay attention to a virgin.
31:2  For what is one’s lot from God above, one’s heritage from Shaddai on high?
31:3  Is it not calamity for the unjust, and disaster for workers of iniquity?
31:4  Does He not see my ways and count all my steps?
31:5  “If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has hurried to deceit,
31:6  then let Him weigh me with honest scales, then God will know my integrity.
31:7  If my step has strayed from the way, if my heart has walked after my eyes, or if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
31:8  then let me sow and another eat, and let my crops be uprooted.
31:9  If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,
31:10  then let my wife grind for another and let others sleep with her.
31:11  For that would be a shameful act, an iniquity to be judged.
31:12  For it is a fire that devours to destruction, and uproots all my harvest.
31:13  “If I have denied justice to my male or female servant when they disputed with me,
31:14  then what could I do when God rises up; when He visits, how will I answer Him?
31:15  Did not He who made me in the womb, make him? Did not the same one form us in the womb?
31:16  “If I withheld the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow to fail,
31:17  if I ate my morsel of bread myself, without letting an orphan eat of it
31:18  (but from my youth I reared him as a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided her),
31:19  if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing or the needy without a covering,
31:20  if his heart did not bless me as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep,
31:21  if I have raised my hand against the orphan, when I saw my support in the gate,
31:22  then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken off at the joint.
31:23  For calamity from God was a terror to me, and because of His majesty, I could do nothing.
31:24  “If I have put my confidence in gold or said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,’
31:25  if I rejoiced because of my great wealth or because of the abundance my hand acquired,
31:26  if I looked at the sun when it shines or the moon moving in splendor,
31:27  so that my heart was secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
31:28  then this also would be iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God above.
31:29  “If I rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune or gloated because calamity found him—
31:30  I have not allowed my mouth to sin, by asking for his life with a curse—
31:31  if anyone in my household has ever said, ‘Who has not been filled with his meat?’
31:32  —but no stranger had to spend the night outside for my door was open to the traveler—
31:33  if I have I covered my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my guilt in my bosom
31:34  because I feared a great multitude, and the contempt of clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside.
31:35  O, that I had someone to hear me! Look, here is my signature, let Shaddai answer me, let the accuser write the indictment!
31:36  Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me as a crown.
31:37  I would give Him an account of my steps; like a prince I would approach Him.
31:38  “If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together,
31:39  if I have eaten its fruits without money, or caused the death of its owners,
31:40  then let briars come up instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.