Job 31:13-16

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants

when they disputed ¹  with me,

31:14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; ² 

when he intervenes, ³ 

how will I respond to him?

31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? ⁴ 

Did not the same one form us in the womb?

31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, ⁵ 

or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

[31:13]  ¹ tn This construction is an adverbial clause using the temporal preposition, the infinitive from רִיב (riv, “contend”), and the suffix which is the subjective genitive.

[31:14]  ² tn Heb “arises.” The LXX reads “takes vengeance,” an interpretation that is somewhat correct but unnecessary. The verb “to rise” would mean “to confront in judgment.”

[31:14]  ³ tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” but with God as the subject it means any divine intervention for blessing or cursing, anything God does that changes a person’s life. Here it is “visit to judge.”

[31:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “him,” but the plural pronoun has been used in the translation to indicate that the referent is the servants mentioned in v. 13 (since the previous “him” in v. 14 refers to God).

[31:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “kept the poor from [their] desire.”