Job 31 :: New International Version (NIV)

Job 31:1

Job 31:1“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.

Job 31:2

Job 31:2For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high?

Job 31:3

Job 31:3Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong?

Job 31:4

Job 31:4Does he not see my ways and count my every step?

Job 31:5

Job 31:5“If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit—

Job 31:6

Job 31:6let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—

Job 31:7

Job 31:7if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled,

Job 31:8

Job 31:8then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

Job 31:9

Job 31:9“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,

Job 31:10

Job 31:10then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her.

Job 31:11

Job 31:11For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged.

Job 31:12

Job 31:12It is a fire that burns to Destruction[fn]; it would have uprooted my harvest.

Job 31:13

Job 31:13“If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me,

Job 31:14

Job 31:14what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?

Job 31:15

Job 31:15Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

Job 31:16

Job 31:16“If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,

Job 31:17

Job 31:17if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless—

Job 31:18

Job 31:18but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow—

Job 31:19

Job 31:19if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments,

Job 31:20

Job 31:20and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,

Job 31:21

Job 31:21if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,

Job 31:22

Job 31:22then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.

Job 31:23

Job 31:23For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.

Job 31:24

Job 31:24“If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’

Job 31:25

Job 31:25if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained,

Job 31:26

Job 31:26if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

Job 31:27

Job 31:27so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,

Job 31:28

Job 31:28then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

Job 31:29

Job 31:29“If I have rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him—

Job 31:30

Job 31:30I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against their life—

Job 31:31

Job 31:31if those of my household have never said, ‘Who has not been filled with Job’s meat?’—

Job 31:32

Job 31:32but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler—

Job 31:33

Job 31:33if I have concealed my sin as people do,[fn] by hiding my guilt in my heart

Job 31:34

Job 31:34because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside—

Job 31:35

Job 31:35(“Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

Job 31:36

Job 31:36Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown.

Job 31:37

Job 31:37I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler.)—

Job 31:38

Job 31:38“if my land cries out against me and all its furrows are wet with tears,

Job 31:39

Job 31:39if I have devoured its yield without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,

Job 31:40

Job 31:40then let briers come up instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(31:12)

Hebrew Abaddon

(31:33)

Or as Adam did

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