| Chapter 31 |
1 | I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.
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2 | For what part should God from above have in me, and what inheritance the Almighty from on high?
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3 | Is not destruction to the wicked, and aversion to them that work iniquity?
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4 | Doth not he consider my ways, and number all my steps?
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5 | If I have walked in vanity, and my foot hath made haste to deceit:
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6 | Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity.
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7 | If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands:
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8 | Then let me sow and let another eat: and let my offspring be rooted out.
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9 | If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend's door:
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10 | Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her.
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11 | For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity.
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12 | It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring.
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13 | If I have despised to abide judgment with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me:
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14 | For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?
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15 | Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?
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16 | If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:
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17 | If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:
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18 | (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb :)
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19 | If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering:
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20 | If his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep:
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21 | If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gate:
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22 | Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken.
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23 | For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was not able to bear.
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24 | If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence:
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25 | If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.
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26 | If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon going in brightness:
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27 | And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with my mouth:
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28 | Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God.
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29 | If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him.
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30 | For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul.
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31 | If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled?
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32 | The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.
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33 | If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom.
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34 | If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and I have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door.
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35 | Who would grant me a hearer, that the Almighty may hear my desire; and that he himself that judgeth would write a book,
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36 | That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown?
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37 | At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince.
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38 | If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn:
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39 | If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof:
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40 | Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.
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