Job: A Covenant with My Eyes
1 “I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? 2 For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? 3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? 4 Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps? 5 “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit 6 (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); 7 if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, 8 then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out. 9 “If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, 10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. 11 For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, 12 for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase. 13 “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, 14 what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? 15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb? 16 “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, 17 or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it 18 (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); 19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; 20 if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; 21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate; 22 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. 23 For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing.
Job's oath of clearance reaches inward to desire and downward to his servants, and rests on the fact that his slaves were made by the same hand.
The chapter is an oath of clearance, sworn in the ancient legal form: if I have done this, then let that happen to me. Each item names a sin and calls down a curse if it is true, and a man who swore falsely in this form expected to be answered.
What makes it remarkable is where the first item is aimed. I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? Job 31:1.
No act is described. It is an agreement made with himself about where he lets his attention go, and it concerns something no court could investigate. A man defending himself against public accusations begins with a private discipline nobody could have checked.
The second item is falsehood, and it comes with an invitation: let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity Job 31:6. He asked for scales at the start of the debate too, for his grief Job 6:2. Now he offers his conduct.
Adultery is treated next, and the curse he accepts for it is severe and exactly proportioned Job 31:10. He calls it a fire that consumes to destruction Job 31:12 — a thing that does not stop where it started.
Then the section that is centuries ahead of its world. If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me Job 31:13.
His slaves had the standing to bring a complaint against him, and he heard it. That alone is unusual. What he gives as the reason is the sentence: didn't he who made me in the womb make him? Didn't one fashion us in the womb? Job 31:15.
The argument is from a common maker. Master and servant were formed by the same hand in the same way, so the difference between them is circumstance and not kind — which removes the ground on which any master could refuse to hear a slave. Job reasons it out for himself, with no law to cite, and he is afraid of the audit: what then will I do when God rises up? Job 31:14.
The list then answers Eliphaz's fabricated charges Job 22:6–9 point by point, in the same order. The poor's desire not withheld; the widow's eyes not made to fail; the morsel not eaten alone; the fatherless clothed and warmed with my sheep's fleece Job 31:16–20.
One clause goes further than denial. From my youth he grew up with me as with a father Job 31:18 — he did not merely refrain from harming orphans; he raised one.
And the last item names the mechanism of injustice precisely: he never lifted his hand against the fatherless because I saw my help in the gate Job 31:21. He had the influence to win any case brought against a child with no advocate, and knowing that he would win is exactly why he never used it.
settled What this mark means