Job

¹I made a promise with my eyes not to look at a young woman with lust.

²What reward do we get from God above, or what inheritance from the Almighty on high?

³Isn't it disaster for the wicked, and ruin for those who do evil?

⁴Doesn't God see the way I live and count every one of my steps?

⁵If I have lived deceitfully, and my foot has quickly gone to dishonesty—

⁶(let God weigh me on accurate scales, so he can know my honesty)—

⁷if my steps have strayed from the right path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if anything impure has stuck to my hands,

⁸then let me plant, and let someone else eat what I grow. Yes, let my crops be destroyed.

⁹If my heart has been tempted by a woman, and I have secretly waited by my neighbor's door,

¹⁰then let my wife grind grain for another, and let other men sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a terrible crime. Yes, it would be a sin to be punished by judges,

¹²because it is a fire that burns to destruction and would wipe out everything I own.

¹³If I have ignored the rights of my male servant or my female servant when they had a complaint against me,

¹⁴what will I do when God rises up? When he judges, what will I answer him?

¹⁵Didn't the one who made me in the womb also make them? Didn't the same God form us both in our mothers' wombs?

¹⁶"If I have ever kept the poor from getting what they wanted, or made the eyes of widows long for help that never came;

¹⁷or if I ate my food alone without sharing any of it with orphans—

¹⁸(No, from my youth, I raised the orphan as if he were my father, and I guided the widow from my mother's womb);

¹⁹if I have seen anyone die because they had no clothes, or if a needy person had nothing to cover themselves with;

²⁰if that person's heart didn't bless me, if they weren't warmed by the fleece from my sheep;

²¹if I have ever used my power against an orphan because I knew I had support in court, then may my shoulder fall from its socket, and my arm be broken from my bone.

²²Then let my shoulder fall from its socket, and my arm be broken off at the bone.

²³Because disaster from God terrifies me, and in awe of his majesty, I can do nothing.

²⁴"If I have put my hope in gold, or said to fine gold, 'You are my security';

²⁵if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because I had gained so much with my own hands;

²⁶if I looked at the sun shining or the moon moving in its splendor,

²⁷and my heart was secretly tempted, and I blew a kiss to them with my hand (as an act of worship);

²⁸this also would be a sin punishable by judges, for I would have been unfaithful to God above.

²⁹"If I have ever celebrated the ruin of someone who hated me, or gloated when evil befell them

³⁰(No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by calling down a curse on their life);

³¹if the people in my household haven't said, 'Has anyone ever gone hungry after being in his home?'

³²(No stranger has ever had to spend the night in the street, because I have always opened my doors to travelers);

³³if I have hidden my wrongs like Adam, by keeping my guilt secret in my heart,

³⁴because I was afraid of the crowd, and the disapproval of families terrified me, making me stay silent and not go out the door—

³⁵Oh, if only someone would listen to me! Look, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let my accuser write down his charges against me!

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would wear it like a crown.

³⁷I would tell him every step I've taken; I would approach him like a prince.

³⁸If my land protests against me, and its furrows cry out together;

³⁹if I have taken its produce without paying, or caused its owners to lose their lives;

⁴⁰then let thorns grow instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are finished.