Job 31

¹ I made a pact with my eyes, not to linger on any virgin.

² Now, what shares does God deal out on high, what lots does Shaddai assign from heaven,

³ If not disaster for the wicked, and calamities for the iniquitous?

⁴ But surely he sees how I behave, does he not count all my steps?

⁵ Have I been a fellow traveller with falsehood, or hastened my steps towards deceit?

⁶ If he weighs me on honest scales, being God, he cannot fail to see my innocence.

⁷ If my feet have wandered from the rightful path, or if my eyes have led my heart astray, or if my hands are smirched with any stain,

⁸ let another eat what I have sown, and let my young shoots all be rooted out.

⁹ If I ever lost my heart to any woman, or lurked at my neighbour’s door,

¹⁰ let my wife grind corn that is not mine, let her sleep between others’ sheets.

¹¹ For I should have committed a sin of lust, a crime punishable by the law,

¹² and should have lit a fire burning till Perdition, which would have devoured all my harvesting.

¹³ If ever I have infringed the rights of slave or maidservant in legal actions against me –

¹⁴ what shall I do, when God stands up? What shall I say, when he holds his assize?

¹⁵ They, no less than I, were created in the womb by the one same God who shaped us all within our mothers.

³⁸ If my land calls down vengeance on my head and every furrow runs with tears,

³⁹ if without payment I have eaten fruit grown on it or given those who toiled there cause to groan,

¹⁶ Have I been insensible to poor men’s needs, or let a widow’s eyes grow dim?

¹⁷ Or taken my share of bread alone, not giving a share to the orphan?

¹⁸ I, whom God has fostered father-like, from childhood, and guided since I left my mother’s womb.

¹⁹ Have I ever seen a wretch in need of clothing, or a beggar going naked,

²⁰ without his having cause to bless me from his heart, as he felt the warmth of the fleece from my lambs?

²¹ Have I raised my hand against the guiltless, presuming on my credit at the gate?

²² If so, then let my shoulder fall from its socket, my arm be shattered at the joint.

²³ God’s terror would indeed descend on me; how could I hold my ground before his majesty?

²⁴ Have I put all my trust in gold, from finest gold sought my security?

²⁵ Have I ever gloated over my great wealth, or the riches that my hands have won?

²⁶ Or has the sight of the sun in its glory, or the glow of the moon as it walked the sky,

²⁷ stolen my heart, so that my hand blew them a secret kiss?

²⁸ That too would be a criminal offence, to have denied the supreme God.

²⁹ Have I taken pleasure in my enemies’ misfortunes, or made merry when disaster overtook them,

³⁰ I who allowed my tongue to do no wrong, by cursing them or vowing them to death?

³¹ The people of my tent, did they not say, ‘Is there a man he has not filled with meat?’

³² No stranger ever had to sleep outside, my door was always open to the traveller.

³³ Have I ever hidden my sins from men, keeping my iniquity secret in my breast?

³⁴ Have I ever stood so in fear of common gossip, or so dreaded any family’s contempt, that I have been reduced to silence, not venturing out of doors?

³⁵ Who can get me a hearing from God? I have had my say, from A to Z; now let Shaddai answer me. When my adversary has drafted his writ against me

³⁶ I shall wear it on my shoulder, and bind it round my head like a royal turban.

³⁷ I will give him an account of every step of my life, and go as boldly as a prince to meet him.