BOOK 18 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Job 31

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Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Job 31 Overview

Job closes his defense with a detailed oath of innocence. He addresses sexual purity, honesty, justice toward servants, care for the poor and widows, treatment of enemies, hospitality, materialism, idolatry, hidden sin, and stewardship of land. He asks for a formal hearing and signs his case.

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31Chapter

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Before you read Job 31

Coming from

Chapter 30 described Job’s present humiliation and felt abandonment.

In this chapter

Job answers the friends’ accusations point by point by inviting judgment upon himself if he has practiced the wrongs they allege.

Leads into

Chapter 32 introduces Elihu, a younger listener who has waited while Job and the three friends debated.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Job 31 is not a claim of absolute sinlessness. It is a formal integrity oath regarding the kinds of serious hidden wickedness the friends have accused him of. The range of issues also shows how broadly biblical righteousness touches private conduct, power, money, sexuality, and treatment of others.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Integrity involves both private purity and just treatment of people with less power.

Truth 2

Job rejects idolatry of wealth and even refuses malicious joy over an enemy’s fall.

Truth 3

The chapter demonstrates the difference between denying specific false charges and claiming never to have sinned.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Matthew 5:27-30 addresses lust at the heart level, echoing the seriousness Job gives to his eyes and desires.

Connection 2

James 5:4 condemns exploitation of laborers, corresponding to Job’s concern for servants and workers.

Connection 3

Proverbs 24:17 warns against rejoicing when an enemy falls, matching Job’s stated refusal to do so.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not use Job’s oath as a checklist for earning eternal life; it is his defense against concrete accusations.

Keep this clear 2

“I made a covenant with mine eyes” concerns deliberate sexual purity, not the claim that merely seeing another person is sinful.

Keep this clear 3

Job’s desire for a hearing is answered later by God, but not in the courtroom format Job imagines.

Read Job 31 watching for…

The number of specific moral areas Job addresses.

His treatment of servants and the poor.

His statements about wealth and idolatry.

His conduct toward enemies and strangers.

The formal ending of his defense.

Chapter outline7 sections

1-8Job speaks of purity, truthfulness, and his desire to be weighed in an even balance 9-12Job denies adultery and calls it a destructive sin 13-15Job says he did not despise the cause of his servants because God made them also 16-23Job says he cared for the poor, widow, fatherless, and those without clothing 24-28Job denies trusting riches or worshipping the sun and moon 29-34Job denies rejoicing at an enemy’s fall, withholding hospitality, or hiding sin 35-40Job asks for an answer, defends his conduct with his land, and ends his words

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

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;

Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

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Job 31:22

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