Job 31:7-8

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

if my heart has gone after my eyes, ¹ 

or if anything ²  has defiled my hands,

31:8 then let me sow ³  and let another eat,

and let my crops ⁴  be uprooted.

[31:7]  ¹ sn The meaning is “been led by what my eyes see.”

[31:7]  ² 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]  ³ tn The cohortative is often found in the apodosis of the conditional clause (see GKC 320 §108.f).

[31:8]  ⁴ 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.