The big picture
Job, a sufferer accused by his friends, makes his final defence before their debate ends. He lists acts that would make him guilty and accepts severe judgement if those charges are true. His claims reach from sexual desire to wages, hospitality, worship and the use of land. This is not a claim that suffering hurts less than it seems. He wants God to hear his full account and name the charge. Suspicion must not stand as proof.
In this chapter
- Eyes and Hands Face Scrutiny Job 31:1-8
Job begins with a pledge concerning his eyes.
- Marriage and Servants Carry Duties Job 31:9-15
He denies seeking another man's wife or waiting at a neighbour's door for that purpose.
- Power Must Not Crush the Needy Job 31:16-23
The defence turns toward people with little help: the poor, widows and children without fathers.
- Wealth and Sky Are Not Gods Job 31:24-28
Job denies making gold the ground of his hope.
- Hospitality Replaces Hidden Hostility Job 31:29-34
Enemies have fallen, but Job denies taking joy in that.
- Job Wants the Charge Made Clear Job 31:35-40
Longing for someone to hear him, Job asks the Almighty for an answer.
Central truth
Job submits his private desires and public dealings to judgement, insisting that his losses do not prove the wrongs others assume.
Scripture beside the summary
Job · King James Version · 40Job 31:1-8
Eyes and Hands Face Scrutiny
Job begins with a pledge concerning his eyes. He has chosen not to look at a young woman with lust. God sees each path he takes, so he expects wrongdoing to meet judgement. He asks to be weighed on fair scales, an image of an honest test of his conduct. If lies or desire have led his hands into wrong, he accepts a loss. Others can take what he grows. His defence starts before outward acts alone: the eyes, heart and steps of a person all belong within the test.
In everyday life
An accounts clerk unlocks her own drawer for an inspector and places the missing receipts beside the ledger. She asks that every entry be checked by the same standard. A clean first page will not excuse a hidden false one. Job invites God's judgement on desire as well as action, not a review of accounts alone.
Notice
Job 31:6 The scales Job requests must be even. He asks for a fair test of his honesty rather than exemption from any test because he has suffered.
Job 31:1-8
King James Version1I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
2For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
6Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
7If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;
8Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
Job 31:9-15
Marriage and Servants Carry Duties
He denies seeking another man's wife or waiting at a neighbour's door for that purpose. If guilty, he invokes a grim reversal for his own wife, including sexual humiliation. The language is severe and its full force is debated. Job calls adultery a crime that burns through a household's wealth. He then turns to servants who brought complaints against him. He had no right to dismiss their case. God made servant and master alike in the womb. Rank within a household does not remove either person's duty to answer to their maker.
In everyday life
The family mediator closes a folder as a wealthy client asks her to ignore the housekeeper's statement. She places both accounts side by side and gives each the same space. Money does not decide whose words deserve hearing. Job's oath also invokes grave harm in marriage, which this hearing does not reenact.
Notice
Job 31:15 Job appeals to a shared maker for master and servant. Their different positions in his house do not give them different origins or different human worth.
Job 31:9-15
King James Version9If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;
10Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.
11For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
12For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.
13If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;
14What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
15Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?
Job 31:16-23
Power Must Not Crush the Needy
The defence turns toward people with little help: the poor, widows and children without fathers. Job denies keeping food to himself or leaving cold people without clothes. He recalls offering the warmth of wool from his own sheep. Nor has he raised his hand against an orphan because friends in court would protect him. If he has done so, he calls for the loss of that arm. Fear of God's judgement kept such abuse in view. Connections at the town gate would not shield him from the greater judge he feared.
In everyday life
A clothing-bank keeper finds a warm coat set aside for her cousin while a child waits in a thin shirt. She puts it back on the open rack and writes down the child's size. Family access must not decide who receives protection from the cold. Job stakes his own body on an oath before God.
Notice
Job 31:21 Job names the temptation to harm someone while relying on allies at court. His claim addresses misuse of power, not merely whether he once gave a gift.
Job 31:16-23
King James Version16If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17Or 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;)
19If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
20If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
22Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.
23For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.
Job 31:24-28
Wealth and Sky Are Not Gods
Job denies making gold the ground of his hope. A large fortune had not given him reason to boast as though his own hand supplied ultimate safety. He also denies worshipping the sun or moon. Their brightness had not drawn him into a secret gesture of devotion, such as kissing his hand toward them. He regards such acts as a denial of God above. Wealth on earth and splendour in the sky can both tempt a person to give trust where it does not belong. Job says he resisted both.
In everyday life
An observatory guide removes a donor's name from a plaque that claims he controls the stars. She thanks him for the telescope while refusing to treat his wealth as rule over the sky. The polished brass still serves its task without that claim. Job denies giving divine honour to either wealth or heavenly bodies.
Notice
Job 31:27 The denial includes a secret response of the heart and a gesture of the hand. Public respectability alone would not settle the question of false worship.
Job 31:24-28
King James Version24If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
25If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;
26If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
27And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
28This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.
Job 31:29-34
Hospitality Replaces Hidden Hostility
Enemies have fallen, but Job denies taking joy in that. He has not asked for a curse to end their lives. Those in his camp knew his open-handed care. Travellers did not have to sleep in the street because his doors were open to them. He denies hiding his wrongs as Adam did, naming the first man associated with human failure. Nor has fear of a crowd or the contempt of families kept him indoors and silent. His defence includes what he refused to wish upon enemies and what he offered to unknown guests.
In everyday life
The guesthouse cook hears that a rival business has lost its roof in a storm. She puts extra soup on the stove and clears the spare room for a stranded visitor. Rivalry does not decide who receives shelter that night. Job's claim reaches into hidden wishes and honesty before God, beyond one hospitable act.
Notice
Job 31:29 Job denies pleasure in an enemy's disaster, not only causing that disaster. His account of right conduct includes how he responds to harm he did not inflict.
Job 31:29-34
King James Version29If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:
30Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
31If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
32The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.
33If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
34Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?
Job 31:35-40
Job Wants the Charge Made Clear
Longing for someone to hear him, Job asks the Almighty for an answer. He wants his accuser's charge written down. Rather than hide it, he says he would carry it openly and approach with a full account of his steps. He then calls his fields as witnesses. If he took their produce without paying or destroyed those who owned them, let weeds replace his crops. These last claims connect land with the lives and labour behind it. Job finishes speaking with his case offered for judgement, not with an answer received.
In everyday life
A tenant farmer carries her signed harvest records into the land hearing. She asks for the complaint in writing and offers every bill for seed and rent. Her fields are not proof enough; the panel must also examine how she obtained their yield. Job calls for God's answer and invokes a curse on his own land.
Notice
Job 31:40 The defence ends by accepting ruined crops if the land was gained through wrong. His final words offer a test of conduct. Present losses do not supply that test.
Job 31:35-40
King James Version35Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.
36Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.
37I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.
38If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
39If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
40Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Job 31:1 begins with “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?”
Where the chapter turns
Job 31:22 forms a natural hinge: “Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.”
The final note
Job 31:40 leaves the reader with “Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words destruction, iniquity, eaten, eyes, hand, heart help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- manservant
- A male servant in a household, here someone whose complaint deserves a hearing.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
