Job 31:16-18

31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, ¹ 

or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans ²  –

31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan ³  like a father,

and from my mother’s womb ⁴ 

I guided the widow! ⁵ 

[31:16]  ¹ tn Heb “kept the poor from [their] desire.”

[31:17]  ² tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”

[31:18]  ³ tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.

[31:18]  ⁴ tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”

[31:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.