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Job 31:16
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14 What then shall I do when aGod rises up?
When He punishes, how shall I answer Him? 
15 aDid not He who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same One fashion us in the womb? 
16 “If I have kept the poor from their desire,
Or caused the eyes of the widow to afail, 
17 Or eaten my morsel by myself,
So that the fatherless could not eat of it
18 (But from my youth I reared him as a father,
And from my mother’s womb I guided1 the widow); 
19 If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
Or any poor man without covering;
20 If his1 heart has not ablessed me,
And if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; 
21 If I have raised my hand aagainst the fatherless,
When I saw I had help in the gate; 
22 Then let my arm fall from my shoulder,
Let my arm be torn from the socket.
23 For adestruction from God is a terror to me,
And because of His magnificence I cannot endure. 
24 “Ifa I have made gold my hope,
Or said to fine gold, ‘You are my confidence’; 
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Job 31:15   Job 31:17 >>


Job 31:16

If I have withheld the poor from their desire - Job now turns to another class of virtues, regarded also as of great importance in the patriarchal ages, kindness to the poor and the afflicted; to the fatherless and the widow. He appeals to his former life on this subject; affirms that he had a good conscience in the recollection of his dealings with them, and impliedly declares that it could not have been for any deficiency in the exercise of these virtues that his calamities had come upon him. The meaning here is, that he had not denied to the poor their wish. If they had come and desired bread of him, he had not withheld it; see Job 22:7.

Or caused the eyes of the widow to fail - That is, I have not frustrated her hopes, or disappointed her expectations, when she has looked intently upon me, and desired my aid. The "failing of the eyes" refers to failing of the object of their expectation; or the expression means that she had not looked to him in vain; see Job 11:20.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 31:16:

Job 31:22
Isaiah 46:10
Isaiah 58:7
Romans 12:13

 

<< Job 31:15   Job 31:17 >>

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