Job

31 A covenant I solemnised for mine eyes,—How then could I gaze upon a virgin?

2 Or what would have been my portion of God from above? Or what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3 Is there not calamity for the perverse? And misfortune for the workers of iniquity?

4 Would he not see my ways? And of all my steps take account?

5 Verily I walked not in falsity, Nor did my foot haste unto deceit:—

6 Let him weigh me in balances of righteousness,—And let God take note of mine integrity!

7 If my goings have swerved from the way,—And after mine eyes hath gone my heart, And to my hands hath adhered any stain

8 Let me sow but another eat. And let what I have springing up be uprooted!

9 If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman, Or by the door of my neighbour I have lien in wait

10 Let my wife grind to another, And over her let others bend!

11 Surely that had been a shameful thing! And that an iniquity for the judges!

12 Surely a fire had that been which unto destruction would have consumed, And of all mine increase had it torn up the root.

13 If I refused the right of my servant or my handmaid, When they contended with me

14 What then could I have done when God rose up? And when he visited what could I have answered him?

15 Did not he who in the womb made me make him? And is not he who formed us in the body one?

16 If I withheld—from pleasure—the poor, Or the eyes of the widow I dimmed;

17 Or used to eat my morsel alone, so that the fatherless did not eat thereof;

18 Surely from my youth he grew up to me as to a father, And from my birth I acted as guide to her:

19 If I saw one perishing for lack of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering;

20 If his loins did not bless me, Or if with the fleece of my lambs he did not warm himself;

21 If I shook—against the fatherless—my hand, When I saw in the gate his need of my help

22 Let my shoulder from the shoulder-blade fall, And my arm from the upper bone be broken;

23 For a dread unto me was calamity from God, And from his majesty I could not escape.

24 If I made gold my stay, And to precious metal said, My confidence!

25 If I rejoiced because great was my substance, And an abundance my hand had discovered;

26 If I looked at the sun when it flashed forth light, Or at the moon majestically marching along;

27 And befooled secretly was my heart, So that my hand kissed my mouth

28 That too had been a judicial iniquity, For I should have been false to God above.

29 If I rejoiced in the misfortune of him that hated me, Or exulted when calamity found him;—

30 Neither did I suffer my palate to sin, By asking with a curse for his life:

31 If the men of my household have not said, Oh for some of his flesh—we cannot get filled,

32 Outside the sojourner lodged not for the night, My doors—to the wayfarer I threw open.

33 If I covered like Adam my transgressions, By hiding in my bosom mine iniquity,

34 Then let me be made to tremble at a great throng, Yea let the contempt of families terrify me, So that keeping silence I shall not go out of the door!

35 Oh that I had one to hear me, Lo! my crossmark, May the Almighty answer me! And would that a book mine opponent had written!

36 Oh! would I not upon my shoulder lift it, Or bind it as a crown upon me;

37 The number of my footsteps I would declare to him, Like a noble would I draw near to him.

38 If against me my ground used to cry out, And together my ridges did weep;

39 If the strength thereof I used to eat without payment, And the soul of the holders thereof I made groan

40 Instead of wheat let there come forth bramble And instead of barley a bad-smelling weed! Ended are the words of Job.