---
title: Job 31
slug: kjv/job-31
createdAt: 2024-08-21T01:43:31.461Z
---

**1 **I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

**2 **For what portion of God *is there* from above? and *what* inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

**3 ***Is* not destruction to the wicked? and a strange *punishment* to the workers of iniquity?

**4 **Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

**5 **If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

**6 **Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

**7 **If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

**8 ***Then* let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

**9 **If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or *if* I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

**10 ***Then* let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

**11 **For this *is* an heinous crime; yea, it *is* an iniquity *to be punished by* the judges.

**12 **For it *is* a fire *that* consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

**13 **If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

**14 **What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

**15 **Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not 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;

**17 **Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

**18 **(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as *with* a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

**19 **If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

**20 **If his loins have not blessed me, and *if* he were *not* warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

**21 **If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

**22 ***Then* let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

**23 **For destruction *from* God *was* a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

**24 **If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, *Thou art* my confidence;

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

**26 **If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking *in* brightness;

**27 **And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

**28 **This also *were* an iniquity *to be punished by* the judge: for I should have denied the God *that is* above.

**29 **If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

**30 **Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

**31 **If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

**32 **The stranger did not lodge in the street: *but* I opened my doors to the traveller.

**33 **If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

**34 **Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, *and* went not out of the door?

**35 **Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire *is, that* the Almighty would answer me, and *that* mine adversary had written a book.

**36 **Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, *and* bind it *as* a crown to me.

**37 **I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

**38 **If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

**39 **If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

**40 **Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.