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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Job 31 Expositor's Dictionary of Texts</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/edt/job/311.htm" /><link href='//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cardo&subset=greek-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/job/31.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/job/31-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">EDT</a> > <a href="../job/">Job</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../job/30.htm" title="Job 30">◄</a> Job 31 <a href="../job/32.htm" title="Job 32">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Expositor's Dictionary of Texts</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-1.htm">Job 31:1</a></div><div class="verse">I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?</div><span class="ital"><a href="/job/31-1.htm" title="I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think on a maid?">Job 31:1</a></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span>'Chastity,' said Bishop Camus of Belley, 'is timid and sensitive, trembling at every shadow, quick at every sound, fearing every peril. It takes alarm at a glance—as a very Job, who had made a covenant with his eyes; the slightest word disconcerts it; it is suspicious of sweet scents; good food seems a snare, mirth a levity, society treacherous, light reading a danger. It moves along all eyes and ears, like one covered with jewels who crosses a forest, and starts at every step, fancying he hears robbers.'<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>—Thoreau, <span class="ital">Walden</span> (' Higher Laws').<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> Reference.—XXXI. 14.—G. Brooks, <span class="ital">Outlines of Sermons,</span> p. 130.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital"><a href="/job/31-15.htm" title="Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?">Job 31:15</a></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span>The races to whom we owe the Bible were cruel in war; they were revengeful; their veins were filled with blood, hot with lust; they knew no art, nor grace, nor dialectic, such as Greece knew, but one service they at least have rendered to the world. They have preserved in their prophets and poets this eternal verity—<span class="ital">He that made me in the womb made him</span>—and have proclaimed with Divine fury a Divine wrath upon all who may be seduced into forgetfulness of it.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>—Mark Rutherford in <span class="ital">The Deliverance.</span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span> When Job had spoken of his duty to the lowly, he had given the sanction for it in the thought: <span class="ital">Did not One fashion us?</span> Jesus gives a higher sanction: Does not one Father love you all? In the presence of the Father the children are to lose their separateness.—Royce, <span class="ital">Religious Aspect of Philosophy,</span> p. 42.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/31-16.htm" title="If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;...">Job 31:16-17</a>Eugenius</span> prescribes to himself many particular days of fasting and abstinence, in order to increase his private bank of charity, and sets aside what would be the current expenses of those times for the use of the poor. He often goes afoot when his business calls him, and at the end of his walk has given a shilling, which in his ordinary methods of expense would have gone for coach hire, to the first necessitous person that has fallen in his way. I have known him, when he has been going to a play or an opera, divert the money which was designed for that purpose upon an object of Charity whom he has met in the street.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>—Addison, <span class="ital">Spectator</span> (No. 177).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital"><a href="/job/31-19.htm" title="If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;">Job 31:19</a></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span>'It was one of Job's boasts that "he had seen none perish for want of clothing"; and that he had often "made the heart of the widow to rejoice". And doubtless Dr. Sanderson,' says Izaak Walton, 'might have made the same religious boast of this and very many like occasions. But, since he did not, I rejoice that I have this just occasion to do it for him.'<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital"><a href="/job/31-24.htm" title="If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, You are my confidence;">Job 31:24</a></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span>If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth command us, we are poor indeed.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>—Burke, <span class="ital">First Letter on a Regicide Peace.</span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/31-26.htm" title="If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;...">Job 31:26-27</a></span><span class="p"><br /><br /></span>'The scholar of the sixteenth century,' says Ruskin in the third volume of <span class="ital">The Stones of Venice,</span> 'if he saw the lightning shining from the east to the west, thought forthwith of Jupiter, not of the Son of Man; if he saw the moon walking in brightness, he thought of Diana, not of the throne which was to be established for ever as a faithful witness in heaven; and though his heart was but secretly enticed, yet thus he denied the God that is above.'<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>'Were I obliged to have a religion,' said Napoleon, 'I would worship the sun—the source of all life—the real God of the earth.'<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-2.htm">Job 31:2</a></div><div class="verse">For what portion of God <i>is there</i> from above? and <i>what</i> inheritance of the Almighty from on high?</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-3.htm">Job 31:3</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Is</i> not destruction to the wicked? and a strange <i>punishment</i> to the workers of iniquity?</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-4.htm">Job 31:4</a></div><div class="verse">Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-5.htm">Job 31:5</a></div><div class="verse">If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-6.htm">Job 31:6</a></div><div class="verse">Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-7.htm">Job 31:7</a></div><div class="verse">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;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-8.htm">Job 31:8</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Then</i> let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-9.htm">Job 31:9</a></div><div class="verse">If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or <i>if</i> I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-10.htm">Job 31:10</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Then</i> let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-11.htm">Job 31:11</a></div><div class="verse">For this <i>is</i> an heinous crime; yea, it <i>is</i> an iniquity <i>to be punished by</i> the judges.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-12.htm">Job 31:12</a></div><div class="verse">For it <i>is</i> a fire <i>that</i> consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-13.htm">Job 31:13</a></div><div class="verse">If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-14.htm">Job 31:14</a></div><div class="verse">What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-15.htm">Job 31:15</a></div><div class="verse">Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-16.htm">Job 31:16</a></div><div class="verse">If I have withheld the poor from <i>their</i> desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-17.htm">Job 31:17</a></div><div class="verse">Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-18.htm">Job 31:18</a></div><div class="verse">(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as <i>with</i> a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-19.htm">Job 31:19</a></div><div class="verse">If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-20.htm">Job 31:20</a></div><div class="verse">If his loins have not blessed me, and <i>if</i> he were <i>not</i> warmed with the fleece of my sheep;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-21.htm">Job 31:21</a></div><div class="verse">If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-22.htm">Job 31:22</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Then</i> let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-23.htm">Job 31:23</a></div><div class="verse">For destruction <i>from</i> God <i>was</i> a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-24.htm">Job 31:24</a></div><div class="verse">If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, <i>Thou art</i> my confidence;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-25.htm">Job 31:25</a></div><div class="verse">If I rejoiced because my wealth <i>was</i> great, and because mine hand had gotten much;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-26.htm">Job 31:26</a></div><div class="verse">If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking <i>in</i> brightness;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-27.htm">Job 31:27</a></div><div class="verse">And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-28.htm">Job 31:28</a></div><div class="verse">This also <i>were</i> an iniquity <i>to be punished by</i> the judge: for I should have denied the God <i>that is</i> above.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-29.htm">Job 31:29</a></div><div class="verse">If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-30.htm">Job 31:30</a></div><div class="verse">Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-31.htm">Job 31:31</a></div><div class="verse">If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-32.htm">Job 31:32</a></div><div class="verse">The stranger did not lodge in the street: <i>but</i> I opened my doors to the traveller.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-33.htm">Job 31:33</a></div><div class="verse">If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-34.htm">Job 31:34</a></div><div class="verse">Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, <i>and</i> went not out of the door?</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-35.htm">Job 31:35</a></div><div class="verse">Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire <i>is, that</i> the Almighty would answer me, and <i>that</i> mine adversary had written a book.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-36.htm">Job 31:36</a></div><div class="verse">Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, <i>and</i> bind it <i>as</i> a crown to me.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-37.htm">Job 31:37</a></div><div class="verse">I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-38.htm">Job 31:38</a></div><div class="verse">If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-39.htm">Job 31:39</a></div><div class="verse">If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/31-40.htm">Job 31:40</a></div><div class="verse">Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. 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