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