Read the Bible

Job’s Final Appeal

Verse1“I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

Verse2For what is the allotment of God from above, or the heritage from the Almighty on high?

Verse3Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

Verse4Does He not see my ways and count my every step?

Verse5If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,

Verse6let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

Verse7If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

Verse8then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

Verse9If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,

Verse10then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

Verse11For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

Verse12For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon; it would root out my entire harvest.

Verse13If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

Verse14what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

Verse15Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

Verse16If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

Verse17if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

Verse18though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

Verse19if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,

Verse20if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

Verse21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

Verse22then may my arm fall from my shoulder and be torn from its socket.

Verse23For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

Verse24If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,

Verse25if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,

Verse26if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

Verse27so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

Verse28this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.

Verse29If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

Verse30I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse—

Verse31if the men of my house have not said, ‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—

Verse32but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler—

Verse33if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

Verse34because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

Verse35(Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.

Verse36Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and wear it like a crown.

Verse37I would give account of all my steps; I would approach Him like a prince.)—

Verse38if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,

Verse39if I have devoured its produce without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,

Verse40then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.