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¹ I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid?² For what is the portion of God from above, and the heritage of the Almighty from on high?³ Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?⁴ Doth not he see my ways, and number all my steps?⁵ If I have walked with vanity, and my foot hath hasted to deceit;⁶ (Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity;)⁷ If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any spot hath cleaved to mine hands:⁸ Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

⁹ If mine heart have been enticed unto a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbour's door:¹⁰ Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.¹¹ For that were an heinous crime; yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:¹² For it is a fire that consumeth unto Destruction, and would root out all mine increase.¹³ If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me:¹⁴ What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?¹⁵ Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one 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 hath not eaten thereof;¹⁸ (Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have been her guide 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 loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;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 mine arm be broken from the bone.²³ For calamity from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I could do nothing.

²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;²⁵ If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;²⁶ If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;²⁷ And my heart hath been secretly enticed, and my mouth hath kissed my hand:²⁸ This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges: for I should have lied to God that is above.²⁹ If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him;³⁰ (Yea, I suffered not my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse;)³¹ If the men of my tent said not, Who can find one that hath not been satisfied with his flesh?³² The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller;

³³ If like Adam I covered my transgressions, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom;³⁴ 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—³⁵ Oh that I had one to hear me! (lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me;) and that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!³⁶ Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder; I would bind it unto me as a crown.³⁷ I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.³⁸ If my land cry out against me, and the furrows thereof weep together;³⁹ If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:⁴⁰ Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.