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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 God above do [to me]? What would be my inheritance from the Almighty 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 God 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 God 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 God 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 God 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 the Almighty 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.