Capítulo 31

1 - "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.

2 - For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high?

3 - Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong?

4 - Does he not see my ways and count my every step?

5 - "If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit -

6 - let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless -

7 - if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled,

8 - then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

9 - "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,

10 - then may my wife grind another man's grain, and may other men sleep with her.

11 - For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged.

12 - It is a fire that burns to Destruction Hebrew [Abaddon]; it would have uprooted my harvest.

13 - "If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me,

14 - what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?

15 - Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

16 - "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,

17 - if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless -

18 - but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow -

19 - if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments,

20 - and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,

21 - if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,

22 - then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.

23 - For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.

24 - "If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security,'

25 - if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained,

26 - if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

27 - so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,

28 - then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

29 - "If I have rejoiced at my enemy's misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him -

30 - I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against their life -

31 - if those of my household have never said, 'Who has not been filled with Job's meat?' -

32 - but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler -

33 - if I have concealed my sin as people do, Or [as Adam did] by hiding my guilt in my heart

34 - because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside -

35 - ("Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense - let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

36 - Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown.

37 - I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler.) -

38 - "if my land cries out against me and all its furrows are wet with tears,

39 - if I have devoured its yield without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,

40 - then let briers come up instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.