¹I cut a covenant with my eyes; so how could I attentively consider a virgin?

²For what is the portion of God from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights?

³Is not disaster for the unjust, and misfortune for those who practice wickedness?

⁴Does he not see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵If I have walked with emptiness, and my foot has hastened to deceit—

⁶let him weigh me in scales of righteousness, and let God know my integrity.

⁷If my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has gone after my eyes, and a blemish has stuck to my palms—

⁸let me sow, and another eat, and let my offspring be rooted up.

⁹If my heart has been enticed over a woman, and at my neighbor's doorway I have lain in wait—

¹⁰let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down over her.

¹¹For that is wickedness, and that is a guilt for judges.

¹²For it is a fire that eats down to Abaddon, and would root up all my harvest.

¹³If I rejected the justice of my slave and my maid-servant when they made complaint against me—

¹⁴then what could I do when God rises up, and when he visits, what could I give back to him?

¹⁵Did not the one who made me in the womb make him, and did one establish us in the womb?

¹⁶If I held back the poor from their desire, and made the eyes of the widow fail—

¹⁷and ate my morsel by myself, and the fatherless did not eat of it—

¹⁸for from my youth he became great with me like a father, and from the womb of my mother I guided her—

¹⁹if I saw anyone perishing for lack of a garment, or the needy with no covering,

²⁰if his loins did not bless me, and he was warmed by the fleece of my lambs—

²¹if I brandished my hand over the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate,

²²let my shoulder-blade fall from my shoulder, and my arm be broken from its joint.

²³For the calamity of God was a fear to me, and before his majesty I could not prevail.

²⁴If I put gold as my confidence, and said to the pure gold, You are my security—

²⁵If I rejoiced that my wealth was great, and that my hand had found much—

²⁶If I saw the light when it shone, and the moon, splendid, going along—

²⁷and my heart was enticed in secret, and my hand kissed to my mouth—

²⁸this too is a guilt calling for judgment, for I would have denied God above.

²⁹If I rejoiced at the disaster of one who hated me, and stirred myself up when evil found him—

³⁰and I did not set my palate to sin, to ask with an oath for his living being—

³¹if the men of my tent did not say, Who will give one not sated from his flesh?

³²the sojourner did not lodge outside, for I opened my doors wide to the wayfarer.

³³If I covered my transgressions like Adam, hiding my guilt in my bosom,

³⁴because I dreaded the great crowd, and the contempt of the families dismayed me, so I kept silent and did not go out the door—

³⁵Who will give me a listener? Behold, my mark—let the Almighty answer me—and the document that the man of my strife has written.

³⁶Surely on my shoulder I would carry it; I would bind it on myself as crowns.

³⁷The number of my steps I would tell him; like a ruler I would draw near to him.

³⁸If my land cried out against me, and its furrows wept together,

³⁹if I ate its produce without silver, and caused the living being of its owners to breathe out—

⁴⁰Let thorns come out in place of wheat, and stinking weeds in place of barley. The words of Job are finished.