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31:1  “I made a covenant with my eyes not to let them lust after any girl.
31:2  “What share does God give from above? What is the heritage from Shaddai on high?
31:3  Isn’t it calamity to the unrighteous? disaster to those who do evil?
31:4  Doesn’t he see my ways and count all my steps?
31:5  “If I have gone along with falsehood, if my feet have hurried to deceit;
31:6  then let me be weighed on an honest scale, so that God will know my integrity.
31:7  “If my steps have wandered from the way, if my heart has followed my eyes, if the least dirt has stuck to my hands;
31:8  then let me sow and someone else eat, let what grows from my fields be uprooted.
31:9  “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door;
31:10  then let my wife grind for another man, and let others kneel on her.
31:11  For that would be a heinous act, a criminal offense,
31:12  a fire that would burn to the depths of Abaddon, uprooting all I produce.
31:13  “If I ever rejected my slave or slave-girl’s cause, when they brought legal action against me;
31:14  then what would I do if God stood up? Were he to intervene, what answer could I give?
31:15  Didn’t he who made me in the womb make them too? Didn’t the same one shape us both before our birth?
31:16  “If I held back anything needed by the poor or made a widow’s eye grow dim [with tears],
31:17  or ate my portion of food by myself, without letting the orphan eat any of it —
31:18  No! From my youth he grew up with me as if with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother’s womb! —
31:19  or if I saw a traveler needing clothing, someone in need who had no covering,
31:20  who didn’t bless me from his heart for being warmed with the fleece from my sheep,
31:21  or if I lifted my hand against an orphan, knowing that no one would dare charge me in court;
31:22  then let my arm fall from its socket, and let my forearm be broken at the elbow!
31:23  For calamity from God has always terrified me; before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that].
31:24  “If I made gold my hope, if I said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,’
31:25  if I took joy in my great wealth, in my having acquired so much;
31:26  or if, on seeing the shining sun or the full moon as it moved through the sky,
31:27  my heart was secretly seduced, so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand;
31:28  then this too would be a criminal offense, for I would have been lying to God on high.
31:29  “Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me? Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him?
31:30  No, I did not allow my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse.
31:31  “Was there anyone in my tent who didn’t say, ‘No one can find a single person whom he has not filled with his meat’?
31:32  No stranger had to sleep in the street; I kept my house open to the traveler.
31:33  “If I concealed my sins, as most people do, by hiding my wrongdoing in my heart,
31:34  from fear of general gossip or dread of some family’s contempt. keeping silent and not going outdoors —
31:35  I wish I had someone who would listen to me! Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me! I wish I had the indictment my adversary has written!
31:36  I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown.
31:37  I would declare to him every one of my steps; I would approach him like a prince.
31:38  “If my land cried out against me, if its furrows wept together,
31:39  if I ate its produce without paying or made its owners despair;
31:40  then let thistles grow instead of wheat and noxious weeds instead of barley! “The words of Iyov are finished.”