Job

Job 31

40 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? 2For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? 3Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? 4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit 6(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); 7if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, 8then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
9“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, 10then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. 11For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; 12for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase. 13“If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, 14what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? 15Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t 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, 17or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it 18(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); 19if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; 20if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; 21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate, 22then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. 23For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing. 24“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ 25If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; 26if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor, 27and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, 28this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above. 29“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him 30(yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse); 31if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’ 32(the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); 33if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart, 34because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door— 35oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! 36Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown. 37I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince would I go near to him. 38If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; 39if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life, 40let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 95 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17145

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–8

The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are the two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard. I. Against the lusts of the flesh. He not only kept himself clear from adultery…

v. 9–15

Two more instances we have here of Job's integrity: - I. That he had a very great abhorrence of the sin of adultery. As he did not wrong his own marriage bed by keeping a concubine (he did not so much as think upon a maid, v. 1), so he was careful not to…

v. 16–23

Eliphaz had particularly charged Job with unmercifulness to the poor (Job 22:6, etc.): Thou hast withholden bread from the hungry, stripped the naked of their clothing, and sent widows away empty. One would think he could not have been so very positive and…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176340

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

I made a covenant with mine eyes,.... Not to look upon a woman, and wantonly gaze at her beauty, lest his heart should be drawn thereby to lust after her; for the eyes are inlets to many sins, and particularly to uncleanness, of which there have been…

v. 2

For what portion of God is there from above?.... What good portion, as the Targum paraphrases it, can impure persons expect from God? such who indulge themselves, and live in the sin of uncleanness, cannot hope to have any part in God, or a portion of good…

v. 3

Is not destruction to the wicked?.... It is even to such wicked men, who live in the sin of fornication, and make it their business to ensnare and corrupt virgins; and which is another reason why Job was careful to avoid that sin; wickedness of every sort is…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–187512

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–4

1 I have made a covenant with mine eyes, And how should I fix my gaze upon a maiden! 2 What then would be the dispensation of Eloah from above, And the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights - 3 Doth not calamity overtake the wicked, And misfortune the…

v. 5–8

5 If I had intercourse with falsehood, And my foot hastened after deceit: 6 Let Him weigh me in the balances of justice, And let Eloah know my innocence. 7 If my steps turned aside from the way, And my heart followed mine eyes, And any spot hath cleaved to my…

v. 9–12

9 If my heart has been befooled about a woman, And if I lay in wait at my neighbour's door: 10 Let my wife grind unto another, And let others bow down over her. 11 For this is an infamous act, And this is a crime to be brought before judges; 12 Yea, it is a…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187138

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

Had I let my senses tempt me to sin, "what portion (would there have been to me, that is, must I have expected) from (literally, of) God above, and what inheritance from (literally, of) the Almighty," &c. [MAURER] (Job 20:29; Job 27:13).

v. 3

Answer to the question in Job 31:2. strange--extraordinary.

v. 4

Doth not he see? &c.--Knowing this, I could only have expected "destruction" (Job 31:3), had I committed this sin (Pro 5:21).

World English Bible — Public domain