Job 31

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Job 31

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 rejoice 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 rejoice 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.

Notes

Cross Reference

Concordance

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 1

<html>I made a covenant with my eyes not to gaze upon a married woman. and why should I gaze upon a virgin? Why should I gaze upon her? Such was Job’s piety, not to lay an eye even on an unmarried woman. [He would say,] “Perhaps, after a time, she will be married, and I will find myself attracted to her.” So is [this verse] explained in Avoth D’Rabbi Nathan (2:5).</html>

Verse 2

<html>Now what is the portion etc. that He recompensed me so?</html>

Verse 3

<html>Is not misfortune, for the unjust He deserves it, not I. and deliverance Heb. ונכר, after the pattern of (Obadiah 1:12) “[And] you should not have looked on the day of your brother on the day of his being delivered (נכרו).”</html>

Verse 4

<html>and count all my steps and see whether I went with falsehood.</html>

Verse 5

<html>hastened Heb. ותחש, and hurried, like (Isa. 60:22), “I will hasten it (אחישנה)”; (Ps. 90:10) “for it is soon (חיש) cut off.”</html>

Verse 7

<html>wrong Heb. מאום, that is a blemish, a shameful thing. This “alef” is written but not read, in the Great Masorah, and it is of the form of (Exod. 5:7), “You shall not continue (תאספון).” If I did this, I would deserve that this curse come upon me.</html>

Verse 8

<html>may I sow and another eat, and my produce be uprooted their roots should be torn up.</html>

Verse 9

<html>and if I lurked at my neighbor’s doorway for his wife, He should requite me…</html>

Verse 10

<html>may my wife grind for someone else Our Sages explained this as an expression of sexual intercourse, as in (Jud. 16:21), “and he did grind in the prison house.”</html>

Verse 11

<html>For that is lewdness and I feared that if I committed it, that it is iniquity deserving punishment iniquity for which judgment of suffering is fit to come.</html>

Verse 12

<html>and it uproots all my grain i.e., this fire. Therefore, I refrained from committing [this sin]. When he speaks with an expression of uprooting, he says תְּשָרֵש, and to express roots, he also uses תְּשָרֵש. Similarly, יְשׁרָשוּ is an expression of uprooting and יְשׁרָשוּ is an expression of a root.</html>

Verse 14

<html>then what will I do etc. I took this to heart, and when He visits, what will I answer Him?</html>

Verse 15

<html>and form us both in the womb? I in my mother’s womb and he in his mother’s womb—did not One creator form us?</html>

Verse 16

<html>I cause…to fail in that I did not fulfill her desire, which is “failure of the eyes.” One who desires and does not achieve is called “failure of the eyes.”</html>

Verse 18

<html>For, from my youth it raised me This virtue [raised me] as a father who raises me and teaches me. So did the uprightness of my heart teach me from my youth. and from my mother’s womb I led it This trait.</html>

Verse 22

<html>from its shoulder blade That is the width of the shoulder. from its bone That is the upper bone, which is round as a reed (קנה), and because it is round as a reed, it is called so.</html>

Verse 23

<html>fear to me His misfortune, which He brought upon the wicked, was fear in my eyes; therefore, I refrained from doing it.</html>

Verse 24

<html>my hope Heb. כסלי, like (8:14), “whose confidence (כסלו) shall be cut off.” My hope and my thought, and because the kidneys are on the flanks (כסלים), and the kidneys advise, the thought is called כֶּסֶל. and to jewelry A gathering of gold and treasures. I said, ‘My confidence.’ therewith to strengthen myself over the poor.</html>

Verse 25

<html>If I rejoiced because my wealth I did not behave with joy in the presence of the poor so as not to make them envious of me.</html>

Verse 26

<html>If I saw light shining The sun in the orbit of its might, and its brightness. and the moon becoming brighter Heb. יקר. Progressively brighter, like (Zech. 14:6), “bright (יקרות) light”; (Ps. 37:20), “like the glory (כיקר) off the meadows.”</html>

Verse 27

<html>And my heart was secretly enticed to the sun and the moon, saying that they are gods, like some heathens, who have gone astray (and worship) all the host of heaven.</html>

Verse 30

<html>but I did not allow my palate to sin to provoke my enemy and to sue him for money that he does not owe me, in order to adjure him and to ask for the soul of my enemy with an oath.</html>

Verse 31

<html>We will not be sated Because of the hatred that they bore against me for burdening them with hospitality toward guests.</html>

Verse 32

<html>to the road The doors of my house were not inside and enclosed by a gatehouse outside, or surrounded by corners to stop the wayfarers from coming, but open to the crossroads so that whoever wishes to come may do so.</html>

Verse 33

<html>in my hiding place Heb. בחבי, like בְּמַחַבוֹאִי.</html>

Verse 34

<html>For I would subdue Originally I would subdue a great multitude of wicked men, but now, even among the Chaldeans—“This people has never been” (Isa. 23:13).</html>

Verse 35

<html>behold my inscription; may the Almighty bear witness for me Would that the Omnipresent bear witness for me in judgment, as He wrote concerning me (1:8): “For there is none like him on earth, a sincere and upright man, God-fearing.” Also Moses, who wrote his Book and my Book, will bear witness concerning me. (Another explanation:) This is what Job says, “Give it to inscribe me and my virtue.” may the Almighty answer me for this request. and may my opponent write a book May he too write a book to contend with me.</html>

Verse 36

<html>Would I not carry him The writer of the book. bind it I will bind the book to me as crowns.</html>

Verse 37

<html>I will tell him the number of my steps to that man.</html>

Verse 38

<html>If my soil complains about me concerning the gleanings, the forgotten sheaves, and the end [of the field], as well as tithes, [claiming] that I did not extract tithes properly. and its furrows weep together that I plowed with an ox and with a donkey together.</html>

Verse 39

<html>without money to hire workers and to oppress them [by not paying them]. Another explanation. This refers to the second tithe, concerning which it is written (Deut. 14:25): “And you shall tie the money in your hand.” and I caused pain to its owner The sharecropper who tills it.</html>

Verse 40

<html>noisome weeds Heb. באשה, (a malodorous plant) like בְּאֻשִׁים (Isa. 5:2). And if I did not do so, may thistles emerge instead of wheat. (Rabbi Oshia taught: The Torah teaches you practical advice, that in a field beset with thistles it is advisable to sow wheat, and in a field beset with weeds, it is advisable to sow barley. This is the reading of Yalkut.) Now what is the reason? “Instead of wheat, thistles shall emerge.” Until this point, he repeatedly prophesies many prophecies, and you say: Job’s words are ended? Rather, Job says as follows, “If I have not done so, may Job’s words be ended, and may he have no pretext for saying before You (Deut. 26:13), ‘I have cleared away what is holy.’” I saw this in the Pesikta of the portion עשר תעשר (ibid. 14), explained in this manner from these verses.</html>

Table of Contents

Job 31

Job 31

Notes

Cross Reference

Concordance

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 1

Verse 2

Verse 3

Verse 4

Verse 5

Verse 7

Verse 8

Verse 9

Verse 10

Verse 11

Verse 12

Verse 14

Verse 15

Verse 16

Verse 18

Verse 22

Verse 23

Verse 24

Verse 25

Verse 26

Verse 27

Verse 30

Verse 31

Verse 32

Verse 33

Verse 34

Verse 35

Verse 36

Verse 37

Verse 38

Verse 39

Verse 40