A covenant with my eyes
1I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I fix them on a virgin? 2What portion would Eloah deal me from above, what inheritance the Almighty from the heights? 3Is it not ruin for the one who does wrong, disaster for those who work iniquity? 4Does he not see my ways and count every step I take? 5If I have walked with what is false and my foot has hurried after deceit — 6let him weigh me on honest scales, and let Eloah know my integrity. 7If my stride has turned off the road, if my heart has gone after my eyes, if any stain has stuck to my hands, 8then let me sow and another eat, and let my crops be torn up by the roots. 9If my heart has been drawn to a woman and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, 10then let my wife grind for another, and let other men kneel over her. 11For that would be an outrage, and a crime for the judges to punish. 12It is a fire that eats down to Abaddon and would burn my whole harvest to the root. 13If I have brushed aside the claim of my servants, male or female, when they had a case against me, 14what would I do when God rises up? When he calls me to account, what would I answer him? 15Did not the one who made me in the belly make him? Did not one and the same shape us in the womb?
If I have shut my door on the poor
16If I have held back the poor from what they wanted and let the eyes of the widow fail, 17if I have eaten my crust alone and the orphan has not eaten from it — 18no: from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother’s womb I was her guide — 19if I have watched anyone die for want of clothing, or the needy with nothing to cover him, 20if his loins have not blessed me, warm with the fleece of my lambs, 21if I have lifted my hand against the orphan because I saw I had backing at the gate, 22then let my shoulder fall out of its socket and my arm be snapped off at the elbow. 23For disaster from God was a terror to me, and before his majesty I could do nothing. 24If I have made gold my confidence and said to fine gold, “You are my security,” 25if I was glad that my wealth was great, that my hand had found so much, 26if I looked at the light when it blazed, or the moon walking in its splendor, 27and my heart was secretly drawn away, and my hand blew a kiss from my mouth — 28that too would be a crime for the judges, for I would have lied to God above. 29If I was glad at the ruin of the one who hated me and stirred myself up when evil found him — 30no, I never let my mouth sin by demanding his life with a curse — 31if the men of my tent have not said, “Who has not eaten his fill of his meat?” 32No stranger ever slept in the street; I kept my doors open to the traveler. 33If I have covered my crimes as man does, hiding my guilt inside my chest, 34because I dreaded the great crowd and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept still and would not go out of the door —
Here is my mark: let the Almighty answer me
35If only someone would hear me! Here is my mark: let the Almighty answer me; let the one who accuses me write out his charge. 36I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown. 37I would give him an account of every step I took; I would come near him like a prince. 38If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept together, 39if I have eaten its yield without paying and made its owners breathe their last, 40then let thorns come up instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
