1: I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
2: For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3: Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4: Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5: If I have walked with vanity, or if 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 blot hath cleaved to mine hands;
8: Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
9: If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if 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 this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
12: For it is a fire that consumeth to 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 myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;
18: (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)
19: If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without 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, when I saw my help in the gate:
22: Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.
23: For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.
24: If I have made gold my hope, or 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, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
28: This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the 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: Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
31: If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
32: The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.
33: If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
34: Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?
35: Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.
36: Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.
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 against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
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.