Job 31:1-12

Job Vindicates Himself

31:1 “I made a covenant with ¹  my eyes;

how then could I entertain thoughts against a virgin? ² 

31:2 What then would be one’s lot from God above,

one’s heritage from the Almighty ³  on high?

31:3 Is it not misfortune for the unjust,

and disaster for those who work iniquity?

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

31:5 If ⁴  I have walked in falsehood,

and if ⁵  my foot has hastened ⁶  to deceit –

31:6 let him ⁷  weigh me with honest ⁸  scales;

then God will discover ⁹  my integrity.

31:7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way,

if my heart has gone after my eyes, ¹⁰ 

or if anything ¹¹  has defiled my hands,

31:8 then let me sow ¹²  and let another eat,

and let my crops ¹³  be uprooted.

31:9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, ¹⁴ 

31:10 then let my wife turn the millstone ¹⁵  for another man,

and may other men have sexual relations with her. ¹⁶ 

31:11 For I would have committed ¹⁷  a shameful act, ¹⁸ 

an iniquity to be judged. ¹⁹ 

31:12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, ²⁰ 

and it would uproot ²¹  all my harvest.

[31:1]  ¹ tn The idea of cutting a covenant for something may suggest a covenant that is imposed, except that this construction elsewhere argues against it (see 2 Chr 29:10).

[31:1]  ² tn This half-verse is the effect of the covenant. The interrogative מָה (mah) may have the force of the negative, and so be translated “not to pay attention.”

[31:2]  ³ tn Heb “lot of Shaddai,” which must mean “the lot from Shaddai,” a genitive of source.

[31:5]  ⁴ tn The normal approach is to take this as the protasis, and then have it resumed in v. 7 after a parenthesis in v. 6. But some take v. 6 as the apodosis and a new protasis in v. 7.

[31:5]  ⁵ tn The “if” is understood by the use of the consecutive verb.

[31:5]  ⁶ sn The verbs “walk” and “hasten” (referring in the verse to the foot) are used metaphorically for the manner of life Job lived.

[31:6]  ⁷ tn “God” is undoubtedly the understood subject of this jussive. However, “him” is retained in the translation at this point to avoid redundancy since “God” occurs in the second half of the verse.

[31:6]  ⁸ tn The word צֶדֶךְ (tsedeq, “righteousness”) forms a fitting genitive for the scales used in trade or justice. The “scales of righteousness” are scales that conform to the standard (see the illustration in Deut 25:13-15). They must be honest scales to make just decisions.

[31:6]  ⁹ tn The verb is וְיֵדַע (vÿyeda’, “and [then] he [God] will know”). The verb could also be subordinated to the preceding jussive, “so that God may know.” The meaning of “to know” here has more the idea of “to come to know; to discover.”

[31:7]  ¹⁰ sn The meaning is “been led by what my eyes see.”

[31:7]  ¹¹ tc The word מֻאוּם (mu’um) could be taken in one of two ways. One reading is to represent מוּם (mum, “blemish,” see the Masorah); the other is for מְאוּמָה (mÿ’umah, “anything,” see the versions and the Kethib). Either reading fits the passage.

[31:8]  ¹² tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ¹³ tn The word means “what sprouts up” (from יָצָא [yatsa’] with the sense of “sprout forth”). It could refer metaphorically to children (and so Kissane and Pope), as well as in its literal sense of crops. The latter fits here perfectly.

[31:9]  ¹⁴ tn Gordis notes that the word פֶּתַח (petakh, “door”) has sexual connotations in rabbinic literature, based on Prov 7:6ff. (see b. Ketubbot 9b). See also the use in Song 4:12 using a synonym.

[31:10]  ¹⁵ tn Targum Job interpreted the verb טָחַן (takhan, “grind”) in a sexual sense, and this has influenced other versions and commentaries. But the literal sense fits well in this line. The idea is that she would be a slave for someone else. The second line of the verse then might build on this to explain what kind of a slave – a concubine (see A. B. Davidson, Job, 215).

[31:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “bow down over her,” an idiom for sexual relations.

[31:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for that [would be].” In order to clarify the referent of “that,” which refers to v. 9 rather than v. 10, the words “I have committed” have been supplied in the translation.

[31:11]  ¹⁸ tn The word for “shameful act” is used especially for sexual offenses (cf. Lev 18:27).

[31:11]  ¹⁹ tc Some have deleted this verse as being short and irrelevant, not to mention problematic. But the difficulties are not insurmountable, and there is no reason to delete it. There is a Kethib-Qere reading in each half verse; in the first the Kethib is masculine for the subject but the Qere is feminine going with “shameless deed.” In the second colon the Kethib is the feminine agreeing with the preceding noun, but the Qere is masculine agreeing with “iniquity.”

[31:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to Abaddon.”

[31:12]  ²¹ tn The verb means “to root out,” but this does not fit the parallelism with fire. Wright changed two letters and the vowels in the verb to get the root צָרַף (tsaraf, “to burn”). The NRSV has “burn to the root.”