Job’s Final Appeal
1 “I made a covenant with my eyes,
how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
2 For what is the portion from God above
and the heritage from the Almighty on high?
3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous
and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
4 Does he not 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 a balanced scale,
that God may know my integrity),
7 if my step has turned from the way,
if my heart walked after my eyes,
if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
8 then 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 waiting at my neighbor’s door,
10 then let my wife grind grain for another
and let others sleep with her,
11 for that would be a heinous crime.
Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
12 for 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,
14 what then will I do when God rises up?
When he visits, what will I answer him?
15 Did he who made me in the womb not make him?
Did one not 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,
17 or 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),
19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,
or that the needy had no covering,
20 if his heart has not blessed me,
if he has not been warmed with my sheep’s fleece,
21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless
because I saw my help in the gate,
22 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade
and my arm be broken from the bone.
23 For 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,’
25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great
and because my hand had gotten much,
26 if I have seen the sun when it shone
or the moon moving in splendor
27 and my heart has been secretly enticed
and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
28 this 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 disaster found him
30 (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin
by asking for his life with a curse),
31 if the men of my tent have not said,
‘Who can find one who has not been filled meat from Job?’
32 (the foreigner has not camped in the street,
but I have opened my doors to the traveler),
33 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions,
by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
34 because I feared the great multitude,
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I remained silent and did not go out of the door—
35 oh that I had one to hear me!
Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!
Let the accuser write my indictment!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder,
and I would bind it to me like a crown.
37 I would declare to him the number of my steps.
Like a prince would I go near to him.
38 If my land cries out against me,
and its furrows weep together,
39 if I have eaten its fruits without money
or have caused its owners to lose their life,
40 let briers grow instead of wheat
and stinkweed instead of barley.”