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31:1  ‘I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.
31:2  For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high?
31:3  Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong?
31:4  Does he not see my ways and count my every step?
31:5  ‘If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit –
31:6  let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless –
31:7  if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled,
31:8  then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
31:9  ‘If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbour’s door,
31:10  then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her.
31:11  For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged.
31:12  It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest.
31:13  ‘If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me,
31:14  what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?
31:15  Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
31:16  ‘If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
31:17  if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless –
31:18  but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow –
31:19  if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments,
31:20  and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,
31:21  if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,
31:22  then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.
31:23  For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendour I could not do such things.
31:24  ‘If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, “You are my security,”
31:25  if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained,
31:26  if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendour,
31:27  so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,
31:28  then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.
31:29  ‘If I have rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him –
31:30  I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against their life –
31:31  if those of my household have never said, “Who has not been filled with Job’s meat?”–
31:32  but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveller –
31:33  if I have concealed my sin as people do, by hiding my guilt in my heart
31:34  because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside –
31:35  (‘Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defence – let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
31:36  Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown.
31:37  I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler.) –
31:38  ‘if my land cries out against me and all its furrows are wet with tears,
31:39  if I have devoured its yield without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,
31:40  then let briers come up instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.’ The words of Job are ended.