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King James Version
Job 31:1
Bible Study Resources
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"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.
I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid?
I made a covenant with my eyes; How then should I look at a virgin?
"But I made an agreement with my eyes not to look with desire at a girl.
"I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I entertain thoughts against a virgin?
I Made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
"I made a covenant with my eyes, How then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
"I have made a covenant (agreement) with my eyes; How then could I gaze [lustfully] at a virgin?
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
I made couenaunt with myn iyen, that Y schulde not thenke of a virgyn.
I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?
Job Continues I promised myself never to stare with desire at a young woman.
I made a covenant with mine eyes; How then should I look upon a virgin?
I made an agreement with my eyes; how then might my eyes be looking on a virgin?
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to let them lust after any girl.
I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid?
"I made an agreement with my eyes not to look at a young woman in a way that would make me want her.
I made a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid?
I made a couenant with mine eyes; why then should I thinke vpon a mayd?
"I have made an agreement with my eyes not to look with desire at a young woman.
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin?
I made a couenant with mine eyes: why then should I thinke on a mayde?
I MADE a vow with my eyes that I would never lust after a virgin.
I have made a solemn promise never to look with lust at a woman.
A covenant, I solemnised for mine eyes, - How then could I gaze upon a virgin?
I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin?
I made a couenaunt with myne eyes: why then should I loke vpon a mayden?
I made a covenant with mine eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin.
I have made a covenant with my eyes.
"I made a covenant with my eyes, How then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
"I made a covenant with my eyes, so how could I look closely upon a virgin?
I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look intently on a virgin?
A covenant I made for mine eyes, And what -- do I attend to a virgin?
I made a couenaunt wt myne eyes, yt I wolde not loke vpo a dasell.
"I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl with my eyes. So what can I expect from God? What do I deserve from God Almighty above? Isn't calamity reserved for the wicked? Isn't disaster supposed to strike those who do wrong? Isn't God looking, observing how I live? Doesn't he mark every step I take?
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I look at a virgin?
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?
"I have cut a covenant with my eyes;How then could I gaze at a virgin?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
a covenant: Genesis 6:2, 2 Samuel 11:2-4, Psalms 119:37, Proverbs 4:25, Proverbs 23:31-33, Matthew 5:28, Matthew 5:29, 1 John 2:16
think: Proverbs 6:25, James 1:14, James 1:15
Reciprocal: Genesis 3:6 - to the eyes Genesis 34:2 - saw her Genesis 39:7 - cast Exodus 20:17 - wife Joshua 7:21 - I saw Judges 14:1 - Timnath Job 1:1 - perfect Job 4:6 - the uprightness Job 16:17 - Not for Job 32:1 - righteous Psalms 101:3 - set Ecclesiastes 2:10 - whatsoever Ezekiel 23:16 - as soon as she saw them with her eyes Mark 9:47 - thine 2 Corinthians 1:12 - our rejoicing 1 Thessalonians 2:10 - how
Cross-References
And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.
And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,
And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.
If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.
Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;
And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead.
And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
I made a covenant with mine eyes,.... Not to look upon a woman, and wantonly gaze at her beauty, lest his heart should be drawn thereby to lust after her; for the eyes are inlets to many sins, and particularly to uncleanness, of which there have been instances, both in bad men and good men, Genesis 34:2; so the poet t represents the eye as the way through which the beauty of a woman passes swifter than an arrow into the hearts of men, and makes impressions there; see 2 Peter 2:14; hence Zaleucus ordered adulterers to be punished, by plucking out the eyes of the adulterer u; wherefore Job, to prevent this, entered into a solemn engagement with himself, laid himself under a strong obligation, as if he had bound himself by a covenant, made a resolution in the strength of divine grace, not to employ his eyes in looking on objects that might ensnare his heart, and lead him to the commission of sin; he made use of all ways and means, and took every precaution to guard against it; and particularly this, to shut or turn his eyes from beholding what might be alluring and enticing to him: it is said x of Democritus, that he put out his eyes because he could not look upon a woman without lusting after her:
why then should I think upon a maid; of corrupting and defiling her, since he had made a covenant with his eyes, and this would be a breach of that covenant: and therefore, besides the sin of lusting after her, or of corrupting her, he would be a covenant breaker, and so his sin would be an aggravated one: or he made a covenant with his eyes, to prevent any impure thoughts, desires, and inclinations in him; for the eye affects the heart, and stirs up lust in it, and excites unclean thoughts and unchaste desires: this shows that the thought of sin is sin; that fornication was reckoned a sin before the law of Moses; and that Job better understood the spirituality of the law than the Pharisees did in the time of Christ, and had the same notion of lust in the heart being fornication and adultery as he had; and that good men are not without temptation to sin, both from within and from without; and therefore should carefully shun all appearances of evil, and whatsoever leads unto it, and take every necessary precaution to guard against it.
t Musaeus de Heron. & Leand. v. 92, &c. u Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 13. c. 24. x Tertullian. Apolog. c. 46.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
I made a covenant with mine eyes - The first virtue of his private life to which Job refers is chastity. Such was his sense of the importance of this, and of the danger to which man was exposed, that he had solemnly resolved not to think upon a young female. The phrase here, “I made a covenant with mine eyes,” is poetical, meaning that he solemnly resolved. A covenant is of a sacred and binding nature; and the strength of his resolution was as great as if he had made a solemn compact. A covenant or compact was usually made by slaying an animal in sacrifice, and the compact was ratified over the animal that was slain, by a kind of imprecation that if the compact was violated the same destruction might fall on the violators which fell on the head of the victim. This idea of cutting up a victim on occasion of making a covenant, is retained in most languages. So the Greek ὅρκια τέμνειν, πέμνἔιν σπονδάς horkia temnein, temnein spondas, and the Latin icere foedus - to strike a league, in allusion to the striking down, or slaying of an animal on the occasion. And so the Hebrew, as in the place before us, כרת ברית berı̂yth kârath - to cut a covenant, from cutting down, or cutting in pieces the victim over which the covenant was made; see this explained at length in the notes at Hebrews 9:16. By the language here, Job means that he had resolved, in the most solemn manner, that he would not allow his eyes or thoughts to endanger him by improperly contemplating a woman.
Why then should I think upon a maid - Upon a virgin - על־בתולה ‛al-bethûlâh; compare Proverbs 6:25, “Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids;” see, also, the fearful and solemn declaration of the Saviour in Matthew 5:28. There is much emphasis in the expression used here by Job. He does not merely say that he had not thought in that manner, but that the thing was morally impossible that he should have done it. Any charge of that kind, or any suspicion of it, he would repel with indignation. His purpose to lead a pure life, and to keep a pure heart, had been so settled, that it was impossible that he could have offended in that respect. His purpose, also, not to think on this subject, showed the extent of the restriction imposed on himself. It was not merely his intention to lead a chaste life, and to avoid open sin, but it was to maintain a pure heart, and not to suffer the mind to become corrupted by dwelling on impure images, or indulging in unholy desires. This strongly shows Job’s piety and purity of heart, and is a beautiful illustration of patriarchal religion. We may remark here, that if a man wishes to maintain purity of life, he must make just such a covenant as this with himself - one so sacred, so solemn, so firm, that he will not suffer his mind for a moment to harbor an improper thought. “The very passage of an impure thought through the mind leaves pollution behind it;” and the outbreaking crimes of life are just the result of allowing the imagination to dwell on impure images. As the eye is the great source of danger (compare Matthew 5:28; 2 Peter 2:14), there should be a solemn purpose that that should be pure, and that any sacrifice should be made rather than allow indulgence to a wanton gaze: compare Mark 9:47. No man was ever too much guarded on this subject; no one ever yet made too solemn a covenant with his eyes, and with his whole soul to be chaste.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXXI
Job makes a solemn protestation of his chastity and integrity,
1-12;
of his humanity, 13-16;
of his charity and mercy, 17-23;
of his abhorrence of covetousness and idolatry, 24-32;
and of his readiness to acknowledge his errors, 33, 34;
and wishes for a full investigation of his case, being
confident that this would issue in the full manifestation
of his innocence, 36-40.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI
Verse Job 31:1. I made a covenant with mine eyes — ברית כרתי לעיני berith carats leeynai: "I have cut" or divided "the covenant sacrifice with my eyes." My conscience and my eyes are the contracting parties; God is the Judge; and I am therefore bound not to look upon any thing with a delighted or covetous eye, by which my conscience may be defiled, or my God dishonoured.
Why then should I think upon a maid? — ומה אתבונן על בתולה umah ethbonen al bethulah. And why should I set myself to contemplate, or think upon, Bethulah? That Bethulah may here signify an idol, is very likely. Sanchoniatho observes, that Ouranos first introduced Baithulia when he erected animated stones, or rather, as Bochart observes, ANOINTED stones, which became representatives of some deity. I suppose that Job purges himself here from this species of idolatry. Probably the Baithulia were at first emblems only of the tabernacle; בית אלוה beith Eloah, "the house of God;" or of that pillar set up by Jacob, Genesis 28:18, which he called בית אלהים beith Elohim, or Bethalim; for idolatry always supposes a pure and holy worship, of which it is the counterfeit. For more on the subject of the Baithulia, Genesis 28:19.
