Job 31:13-40

13“If I have abused the rights of my servants, male or female, when they have disagreed with me,

14then what could I do if God rises up? If he examines me, how could I answer him?

15Didn’t he who made me in my mother’s belly make them? Didn’t the same God form us in the womb?

16“If I have refused the requests of the poor or made a widow’s eyes stop ⌞looking for help⌟,

17or have eaten my food alone without letting the orphan eat any of it….

18(From my youth the orphan grew up with me as though I were his father, and from my birth I treated the widow kindly.)

19If I have seen anyone die because he had no clothes or a poor person going naked….

20(If his body didn’t bless me, or the wool from my sheep didn’t keep him warm….)

21If I have shaken my fist at an orphan because I knew that others would back me up in court,

22⌞then⌟ let my shoulder fall out of its socket, and let my arm be broken at the elbow.

23“A disaster from God terrifies me. In the presence of his majesty I can do nothing.

24“If I put my confidence in gold or said to fine gold, ‘I trust you’….

25If I enjoyed being very rich because my hand had found great ⌞wealth⌟….

26If I saw the light shine or the moon move along in its splendor

27so that my heart was secretly tempted, and I threw them a kiss with my hand,

28then that, too, would be a criminal offense, and I would have denied God above.

29“If I enjoyed the ruin of my enemy or celebrated when harm came to him

30(even though I didn’t speak sinfully by calling down a curse on his life)….

31“If the people who were in my tent had said, ‘We wish we had never filled ⌞our stomachs⌟ with his food’….

32(The visitor never spent the night outside, because I opened my door to the traveler.)

33“If I have covered my disobedience like Adam and kept my sin to myself,

34because I dreaded the large, noisy crowd and because the contempt of the ⌞local⌟ mobs terrified me so that I kept quiet and didn’t go outside….

35“If only I had someone who would listen to me! Look, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me. Let the prosecutor write ⌞his complaint⌟ on a scroll.

36I would certainly carry it on my shoulder and place it on my head like a crown.

37I would tell him the number of my steps and approach him like a prince.

38“If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept….

39If I have eaten its produce without paying for it and made its owners breathe their last,

40⌞then⌟ let it grow thistles instead of wheat, and foul-smelling weeds instead of barley.” This is the end of Job’s words.