Read the Bible

¹ I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.² For what part should God from above have in me, and what inheritance the Almighty from on high?³ Is not destruction to the wicked, and aversion to them that work iniquity?⁴ Doth not he consider my ways, and number all my steps?⁵ If I have walked in vanity, and my foot hath made haste to deceit:⁶ Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity.⁷ If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands:⁸ Then let me sow and let another reap: and let my offspring be rooted out.

⁹ If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend’s door:¹⁰ Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her.¹¹ For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity.¹² It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring.¹³ If I have despised to abide judgment with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me:¹⁴ For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?¹⁵ Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?

¹⁶ If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:¹⁷ If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:¹⁸ (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother’s womb:)¹⁹ If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering:²⁰ If his sides 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, even when I saw myself superior in the gate:²² Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken.²³ For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was unable to bear.

²⁴ If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence:²⁵ If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.²⁶ If I beheld the sun when it shined and the moon going in brightness:²⁷ And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with, my mouth:²⁸ Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God.²⁹ If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him.³⁰ For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul.³¹ If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled?³² The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.

³³ If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom.³⁴ If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door.³⁵ Who would grant me a hearing, that the Almighty may hear my desire: and that he himself that judgeth would write a book,³⁶ That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown?³⁷ At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince.³⁸ If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn:³⁹ If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the son of the tillers thereof:⁴⁰ Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.