Job 31:16-23

The Voice

¹⁶     If I have stood between the poor and the object of their desire,
        if I have caused a widow to lose her love of life,
¹⁷     If I have eaten my food alone
        and not shared it with the hungry orphan
¹⁸     (Indeed, from as far back as I can remember, I have cared for them all—
        from my youth, been a father to the orphan;
        from my own birth, cared for the widow),
¹⁹     If I have idly watched anyone die from exposure simply due to a lack of clothing
        or seen the poor without any kind of covering,
²⁰     If ever people in such conditions did not physically bless and thank me
        for warming them up with the fleeces of my own sheep,
²¹     If I ever used my civic strength to condemn the fatherless
        simply because I knew I had allies in the courts;
²²     Then let my arm be pulled from its socket!
        Let my forearm be snapped off at the elbow for raising it against the orphan!
²³     See, I have always dreaded the kind of disaster wrought by God;
        I was never able to withstand His majesty.