H3 N1 u1 1. Sin. [Unchastity.]
v1 2-4. Consequence.
N2 u2 5. Sin. [Deceit.]
v2 6. Consequence. [Trial desired.]
N3 u3 7. Sin. [Dishonesty.]
v3 8. Consequence. [Imprecation.]
N4 u4 9. Sin. [Adultery.]
v4 10-12. Consequence. [Imprecation.]
N5 u5 13. Sin. [Injustice.]
v5 14,15. Consequence. [Penalty.]
N6 u6 16-21. Sin. [Inhumanity.]
v6 22,23. Consequence. [Imprecation.]
N7 u7 24-27. Sin of the heart. [Covetousness, 24,25. Idolatry, 26,27.]
v7 28. Consequence. [Penalty.]
N8 u8 29-34. Sin of the heart. [Malignity, 29-31. Inhospitality, 32. Hypocrisy, 33,34.]
v8 35-37. Consequence. [trial desired.]
N9 u9 38,39. Sin. [Fraud.]
v9 40. Consequence
1656 B.C.
Job 31)
1 I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
2 For what portion of GOD (Eloah) is there from above? and what inheritance of The Almighty (Shaddai) from on high?
3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4 Does not He see my ways, and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot has hasted to deceit;
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance that GOD may know my integrity.
7 If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any blot has cleaved to my hands;
8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yes, let my offspring be rooted out.
9 If my heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door;
10 Then let my wife grind to another, and let others bow down upon her.
11 For this is an heinous crime; yes, it is a judicial iniquity. (Or, an iniquity in the eye of the law.)
12 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my 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 (El) rises up? and when He visits, 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 impoverished from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless has 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 helpless without covering;
20 If his loins have not blessed me (i.e. the loins so covered), 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 (put for those who would be on his side) in the gate:
22 Then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone (i.e. the socket).
23 For destruction from GOD was a terror to me, and by reason of his majesty I could not escape.
24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, 'You are my confidence;
25 If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;
26 If I beheld the light when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
27 And my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand: (I.e. the outward sign of homage [to, or in worship, of the sun].)
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 rejoice 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 their soul.
31 If the men of my tent 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 traveler.
33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam (cp. Gen. 3:10), by hiding my 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 the man of my quarrel 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 to him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near to 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 made the souls the owners groan thereof to lose their life:
40 Let thistles grow (this is not an imprecation, but an argument in favor of his integrity: i.e. had he been as his friends alleged, would he not have had bad instead of bountiful harvests?) instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." The words of Job are ended. (As far as his friends were concerned. He had words for God [ch. 421-6].)