• ¹“I made a covenant with my eyes,
• how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

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

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

• ⁴Doesn’t he see my ways,
• and number all my steps?

• ⁵“If I have walked with falsehood,
• and my foot has hurried to deceit

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

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

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

• ⁹“If my heart has been enticed to a woman,
• and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,

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

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

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

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

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

• ¹⁵Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him?
• Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?

• ¹⁶“If I have withheld the poor from their desire,
• or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

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

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

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

• ²⁰if his heart hasn’t blessed me,
• if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;

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

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

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

• ²⁴“If I have made gold my hope,
• and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• ³⁴because 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—

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

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

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

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

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

• ⁴⁰let briars grow instead of wheat,
• and stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.