Job Thirty One
by Dr. Henry M. Morris
(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)
Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
covenant with mine eyes. Job deliberately refused to allow any thoughts of lust to enter his mind when he chanced to see an attractive young woman. Note Christ's warning in Matthew 5:28.
Job 31:3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
Job 31:4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
count all my steps. God has counted the number of stars (Psalm 147:4), the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30), and even the number of our steps! God is omniscient.
Job 31:5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
If I have walked. Continuing to review his own record of righteousness (see Job 29), he makes some sixteen or more propositions beginning in effect with “If I ... had committed some sin of either commission or omission” and terminating with “Then I ... should be appropriately judged and chastised.” He insisted that he was innocent of all such sins.
Job 31:6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
Job 31:8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
Job 31:9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;
Job 31:10 Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.
Job 31:11 For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
Job 31:12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.
Job 31:14 What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
Job 31:15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?
Job 31:17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;
Job 31:19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
Job 31:20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
Job 31:21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
Job 31:22 Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.
Job 31:24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
Job 31:25 If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;
Job 31:26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
walking in brightness. Job seemed to understand that the moon does not emit its own light, but reflects the light of the sun. He differentiates between the shining of the sun, and refers to the moon merely “walking” in the sun's brightness.
Job 31:27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
kissed my hand. This seems to have been a ritualistic kiss associated with worshipping various nature gods, thus denying the one true God, who had created his hand“the God that is above” (Job 31:28).
Job 31:30 Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
Job 31:31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
Job 31:32 The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.
Job 31:33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
Adam. Adam was still known to Job by name, though he had no access to the records now preserved in the book of Genesis. He also knew about the sin of Adam, and how he had tried unsuccessfully to hide from God.
mine adversary. Job did not regard God as his enemy. The terminology is that of a courtroom, and Job is expressing his desire that he might be informed of the charges against him.
Job 31:36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.
Job 31:37 I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.
Job 31:38 If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
thistles. Job is here invoking God's primeval curse (Genesis 3:18) on his possessions if he is guilty of any known and unrepentant sin. Despite all the harsh charges of his erstwhile friends, Job insistently maintained both his faith in God and his righteous character and behavior, right up to the last.
cockle. “Stinkweed” in the Hebrew.