Job Chapter 31

From The Open Bible Project

31:1 "I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

  • (a) I kept my eyes from all wanton looks.
  • (b) Would not God then have punished me?

31:2 For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?

31:3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

  • (c) Job declares that the fear of God was a bridle to stay him from all wickedness.

31:4 Doesn't he see my ways, and number all my steps?

31:5 "If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit

31:6 (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

  • (d) He shows what his uprightness stands in, in as much as he was blameless before men and did not sin against the second table.

31:7 if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

  • (e) That is, has accomplished the lust of my eyes.

31:8 then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

31:9 "If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor's door,

31:10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

  • (g) Let her be made a slave.

31:11 For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

31:12 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.

  • (h) He shows that although man neglects the punishment of adultery, yet the wrath of God will never cease till such are destroyed.

31:13 "If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me;

  • (i) When they thought themselves evil intreated by me.

31:14 What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?

  • (k) If I had oppressed others, how would I have escaped God�s judgment.

31:15 Didn't he who made me in the womb make him? Didn't one fashion us in the womb?

  • (l) He was moved to show pity to servants, because they were God�s creatures as he was.

31:16 "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

  • (m) By long waiting for her request.

31:17 or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it

31:18 (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her have I guided from my mother's womb);

  • (n) He nourished the fatherless, and maintained the widows cause.

31:19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

31:20 if his heart hasn't blessed me, if he hasn't been warmed with my sheep's fleece;

31:21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,

  • (o) To oppress him and to do him harm.

31:22 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.

  • (p) Let me rot in pieces.

31:23 For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because his majesty, I can do nothing.

  • (q) I did not refrain from sin for fear of men, but because I feared God.

31:24 "If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, 'You are my confidence;'

31:25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

31:26 if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,

  • (r) If I was proud of my worldly prosperity and happiness, which is meant by the shining of the sun, and brightness of the moon.

31:27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

  • (s) If my own doings delighted me.

31:28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above.

  • (t) By putting confidence in anything but in him alone.

31:29 "If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him;

31:30 (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);

31:31 if the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?'

  • (u) My servants moved me to be avenged of my enemy, yet I never wished him harm.

31:32 (the foreigner has not lodged in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);

31:33 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

  • (x) Not confessed it freely, by which it is evident that he justified himself before men, and not before God.

31:34 because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn't go out of the door--

  • (y) That is, I reverenced the most weak and contemned and was afraid to offend them.
  • (z) I suffered them to speak evil of me, and went not out of my house to avenge it.

31:35 oh that I had one to hear me! (behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me); let the accuser write my indictment!

  • (a) This is a sufficient token of my righteousness, that God is my witness and will justify my cause.

31:36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown.

  • (b) Should not this book of his accusations be a praise and commendation to me?

31:37 I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince would I go near to him.

  • (c) I will make him account of all my life, without fear.

31:38 If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;

  • (d) As though I had withheld their wages that laboured in it.

31:39 if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,

  • (e) Meaning, that he was not a briber or extortioner.

31:40 let briars grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.

  • (f) That is, the talk which he had with his three friends.
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