Job
31 “I put my eyes under a contract,
and how was I to take notice of a maiden?
2 And what is God’s allotment from above
and Shaddai’s assignment from on high?
3 Is it not calamity for a knave
and mishap for villains?
4 Does not he see my courses
and count all my steps?
5 If I walked with false pretense
and my foot hurried toward fraud,
6 Let God weigh me in a fair balance
and know about my conscientiousness.
7 If my tread has swerved from the course
and my eye has followed my heart
and anything has stuck to my hands,
8 Let me sow and another eat,
and what grows for me be uprooted.
9 If my heart has been inveigled after a woman
and I have lain in wait at my friend’s doorway,
10 Let my wife grind for another
and others crouch over her.
11 For that would be lewdness,
it would be guilt to come before a court.
12* For that is a fire that would eat down to the land of the gone forever
and take out the roots of all my produce.
13 If I refused the rights of my slaves
when they had a dispute with me,
14 What should I do when Deity stands up,
and when he is punishing what answer should I make to him?
15 Did not he who made me in a mother’s body make them,
and was it not one who worked us into shape in the womb?
16 If I withheld what poor men wanted
and let a widow’s eyes wear out with looking and longing,
17 And ate my snack alone
and an orphan did not eat part
18* (For from my boyhood I raised him as a father would,
and ever since my birth I helped her along),
19 If I saw one perishing for lack of clothing
and that a needy man had nothing to cover him,
24 If I have made gold my reliance
and spoken of kethem as my confidence,
25 If I was gladdened because my wealth was great
and I had a great deal at my disposal,
26 If I saw the light as it beamed
and the moon walking sublimely
28 That too would be guilt to come before a court,
for I should have been lying to Deity above.
29 If I was glad of a disaster to one who hated me
and was elated because evil had found him—
30 Why, I did not let my throat sin
asking his life with a curse;
31 If the men of my tent did not say
‘Who will bring somebody that has not had all he wanted of his meat?’—
32 No visitor from abroad spent the night in the street;
I opened my doors to the wayfarer.
33 If in human fashion I covered up my crime,
burying my guilt under my cloak,
34 Because I stood in awe of a great crowd
and the contempt of clans dismayed me,
And I kept quiet, not going out of the doorway—
35* I wish I had someone to hear me!
Here is my signature, let Shaddai answer me!
And a bill that my opponent had written,
37 I would report to him the number of my steps,
would receive him as a lord high steward should.
38 If my soil cries out against me
and its furrows are weeping together,
39 If I have eaten its strength without paying money
and have let the life go out of its owners,