Chapter 31

  I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.  

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  For what part should God from above have in me, and what inheritance the Almighty from on high?  

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  Is not destruction to the wicked, and aversion to them that work iniquity?  

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  Doth not he consider my ways, and number all my steps?  

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  If I have walked in vanity, and my foot hath made haste to deceit:  

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  Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity.  

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  If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands:  

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  Then let me sow and let another eat: and let my offspring be rooted out.  

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  If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend's door:  

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  Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her.  

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  For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity.  

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  It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring.  

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  If I have despised to abide judgment with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me:  

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  For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?  

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  Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?  

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  If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:  

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  If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:  

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  (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb :)  

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  If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering:  

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  If his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep:  

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  If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gate:  

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  Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken.  

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  For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was not able to bear.  

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  If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence:  

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  If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.  

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  If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon going in brightness:  

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  And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with my mouth:  

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  Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God.  

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  If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him.  

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  For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul.  

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  If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled?  

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  The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.  

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  If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom.  

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  If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and I have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door.  

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  Who would grant me a hearer, that the Almighty may hear my desire; and that he himself that judgeth would write a book,  

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  That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown?  

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  At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince.  

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  If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn:  

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  If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof:  

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  Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.  

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