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Job’s previous blessing

29 Job took up his subject again:

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Lust

31 I’ve made a covenant with my eyes;
    how could I look at a virgin?
What is God’s portion for me[a] from above,
    the Almighty’s inheritance from on high?
Isn’t it disaster for the wicked,
    destruction for workers of iniquity?
Doesn’t he see my ways,
    count all my steps?

Deceit

If I have walked with frauds
        or my feet have hurried to deceit,
    let him weigh me on accurate scales;
        let God know my integrity.
If my step has turned from the way,
        if my heart has followed my eyes
        or a blemish has clung to my hands,
    then let me sow and another reap;
        let my offspring be uprooted.

Adultery

If my heart has been drawn to a woman
        and I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,
10     then may my wife grind for another
        and others kneel over her;
11     for that’s a crime;
        it’s a punishable offense;
12     indeed, it’s a fire that consumes to the underworld,[b]
        uprooting all my harvest.

Slaves

13 If I’ve rejected the just cause of my male or female servant
        when they contended with me,
14     what could I do when God rises;
        when he requires an account, what could I answer?
15 Didn’t the one who made me in the belly make them;
    didn’t the same one fashion us in the womb?

The defenseless

16 If I have denied what the poor wanted,
        made a widow’s eyes tired,
17     eaten my morsel alone,
        and not shared any with an orphan
(18     for from my youth I raised the orphan as a father,
        and from my mother’s womb I led the widow);[c]
19     if I ever saw someone dying without clothes, the needy naked;
20     if they haven’t blessed me fervently,[d]
        or if they weren’t warmed by the wool from my sheep;
21     if I have lifted my hand against the orphans,
        when I saw that I had help in the city gate—
22     may my arm fall from my shoulder,
        my forearm be broken at the elbow—
23     for God’s calamity is terror to me;
        I couldn’t endure his splendor.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 31:2 Heb lacks for me.
  2. Job 31:12 Heb Abaddon
  3. Job 31:18 Heb lacks orphan . . . widow.
  4. Job 31:20 Or his loins

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