I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid?

The stranger did not lodge without; I opened my doors to the pathway.

If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom,

I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I come near to him.

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

Because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and went not out of the door, ...

Oh that I had one to hear me! Behold my signature: let the Almighty answer me! And let mine opponent write an accusation!

Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb?

If I beheld the sun when it shone, or the moon walking in brightness,

Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and tares instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me,

Would I not take it upon my shoulder? I would bind it on to me as a crown;

If I have made gold my hope, or said to the fine gold, My confidence!

If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have tormented to death the souls of its owners:

If my heart have been enticed unto a woman, so that I laid wait at my neighbour's door,

For what would have been my portion of +God from above, and what the heritage of the Almighty from on high?

Doth not he see my ways, and number all my steps?

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, and exulted when evil befell him;

(Let me be weighed in an even balance, and +God will take knowledge of my blamelessness;)

For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

(Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse;)

If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs;

What then should I do when God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?

Or have eaten my morsel alone, so that the fatherless ate not thereof,

If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot hath hasted to deceit,

If my step have turned out of the way, and my heart followed mine eyes, and if any blot cleaveth to my hands;

If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

And my heart have been secretly enticed, so that my mouth kissed my hand:

For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity to be judged by the judges:

Let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her.

If I have seen any perishing for want of clothing, or any needy without covering;

For calamity from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I was powerless.

Is not calamity for the unrighteous? and misfortune for the workers of iniquity?

Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone!

If I have lifted up my hand against an orphan, because I saw my help in the gate:

(For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have guided the widow from my mother's womb;)

If the men of my tent said not, Who shall find one that hath not been satisfied with his meat? --

This also would be an iniquity for the judge, for I should have denied the God who is above.

Let me sow, and another eat; and let mine offspring be rooted out.