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[1] I made a covenant with mine eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin.
[2] Now what portion has God given from above? and is there an inheritance given of the Mighty One from the highest?
[3] Alas! destruction to the unrighteous, and rejection to them that do iniquity.
[4] Will he not see my way, and number all my steps?
[5] But if I had gone with scorners, and if too my foot has hasted to deceit:
[6] (for I am weighed in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence:)
[7] if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if mine heart has followed mine eye, and if too I have touched gifts with my hands;
[8] then let me sow, and let others eat; and let me be uprooted on the earth.
[9] If my heart has gone forth after another man's wife, and if I laid wait at her doors;
[10] then let my wife also please another, and let my children be brought low.
[11] For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, in the case of defiling another man's wife.
[12] For it is a fire burning on every side, and whomsoever it attacks, it utterly destroys.
[13] And if too I despised the judgment of my servant or my handmaid, when they pleaded with me;
[14] what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? and if also he should at all visit me, can I make an answer?
[15] Were not they too formed as I also was formed in the womb? yea, we were formed in the same womb.
[16] But the helpless missed not whatever need they had, and I did not cause the eye of the widow to fail.
[17] And if too I ate my morsel alone, and did not impart of it to the orphan;
[18] (for I nourished them as a father from my youth and guided them from my mother's womb.)
[19] And if too I overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him;
[20] and if the poor did not bless me, and their shoulders were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs;
[21] if I lifted my hand against an orphan, trusting that my strength was far superior to his:
[22] let them my shoulder start from the blade-bone, and my arm be crushed off from the elbow.
[23] For the fear of the Lord constrained me, and I cannot bear up by reason of his burden.
[24] If I made gold my treasure, and if too I trusted the precious stone;
[25] and if too I rejoiced when my wealth was abundant, and if too I laid my hand on innumerable treasures:
[26] (do we not see the shining sun eclipsed, and the moon waning? for they have not power to continue:)
[27] and if my heart was secretly deceived, and if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it:
[28] let this also then be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity: for I should have lied against the Lord Most High.
[29] And if too I was glad at the fall of mine enemies, and mine heart said, Aha!
[30] let then mine ear hear my curse, and let me be a byword among my people in my affliction.
[31] And if too my handmaids have often said, Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh; (whereas I was very kind:
[32] for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to every one that came:)
[33] or if too having sinned unintentionally, I hid my sin;
[34] (for I did not stand in awe of a great multitude, so as not to declare boldly before them:) and if too I permitted a poor man to go out of my door with an empty bosom:
[35] (Oh that I had a hearer,)and if I had not feared the hand of the Lord; and as to the written charge which I had against any one,
[36] I would place it as a chaplet on my shoulders, and read it.
[37] And if I did not read it and return it, having taken nothing from the debtor:
[38] If at any time the land groaned against me, and if its furrows mourned together;
[39] and if I ate its strength alone without price, and if I too grieved the heart of the owner of the soil, by taking aught from him:
[40] then let the nettle come up to me instead of wheat, and a bramble instead of barley. And Job ceased speaking.
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