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.