Job 31 - Easy To Read Version

¹ “I made an agreement with my eyes\par not to look at a girl in a way\par that would make me want her.\par

² What does God All-Powerful\par do to people?\par How does God pay people back from his home high in heaven?\par

³ God sends trouble and ruin\par to wicked people,\par and disaster to people that do wrong.\par

⁴ God knows everything I do,\par and he sees every step I take.\par

⁵ “I have not lied and tried to cheat people!\par

⁶ If God would use accurate scales, {\cf2\super [64]} \par then he would know that I am innocent.\par

⁷ \{Then God would know\}\par if I walked off the the right path,\par if my eyes led my heart to do evil,\par or if my hands are dirty with sin,\par

⁸ Then \{it would be right for other people\}\par to eat the crops I planted\par and to pull up the plants I grew.\par

⁹ “If I have desired another woman\par or waited at my neighbor’s door\par to sin with his wife,\par

¹⁰ then let my wife cook another man’s food,\par and let other men sleep with her.\par

¹¹ Why? Because sexual sin is shameful.\par It is a sin that must be punished.\par

¹² Sexual sin is like a fire that burns\par until it destroys everything!\par It could ruin everything I have ever done.\par

¹³ “If I refuse to be fair to my slaves\par when they have a complaint against me,\par

¹⁴ then what will I do when I must face God?\par What will I say when God asks me\par to explain what I did?\par

¹⁵ God made me in my mother’s body.\par And God also made my slaves.\par God shaped us all inside our mothers.\par

¹⁶ “I have never refused to help poor people.\par I always gave widows what they needed.\par

¹⁷ I have never been selfish with my food.\par I always gave food to orphans.\par

¹⁸ All my life,\par I have been like a father\par to children that had no father.\par All my life,\par I have taken care of widows.\par

¹⁹ When I found people suffering\par because they didn’t have clothes,\par or a poor man with no coat,\par

²⁰ I always gave them clothes.\par I used the wool from my own sheep\par to make them warm.\par And they blessed me with all their heart.\par

²¹ I never shook my fist at an orphan\par when I saw him at the gate\par asking for help. {\cf2\super [65]} \par

²² If I ever did that, then may my arm\par be pulled from its socket\par and fall from my shoulder!\par

²³ But I didn’t do any of those bad things.\par I am afraid of God’s punishment.\par His majesty (importance) scares me. {\cf2\super [66]} \par

²⁴ “I have never trusted in my riches.\par \{I always trusted God to help me.\}\par I never said to pure gold,\par ‘You are my hope.’\par

²⁵ I have been wealthy.\par But that didn’t make me proud!\par I earned a lot of money.\par But that is not what made me happy!\par

²⁶ I have never worshiped the bright sun,\par or the beautiful moon.\par

²⁷ I was never foolish enough\par to worship the sun and the moon.\par

²⁸ That is also a sin that must be punished.\par If I had worshiped those things,\par then I would have been unfaithful\par to God All-Powerful.\par

²⁹ “I have never been happy\par when my enemies were destroyed.\par I have never laughed at my enemies\par when bad things happened to them.\par

³⁰ I have never let my mouth sin\par by cursing {\cf2\super [67]} my enemies,\par and wishing for them to die.\par

³¹ All the people in my house know that\par I have always given food to strangers.\par

³² I always invited strangers into my home\par so they would not have to sleep\par in the streets at night.\par

³³ Other people try to hide their sins.\par But I have not hidden my guilt.\par

³⁴ I have never been afraid\par of what people might say.\par That fear never made me keep quiet.\par It never made me refuse to go outside.\par I am not afraid of people’s hate for me.\par

³⁵ “Oh, I wish someone would listen to me!\par Let me explain my side.\par I wish God All-Powerful\par would answer me.\par I wish he would write down\par what he thinks I did wrong.\par

³⁶ Then I would wear that sign\par around my neck.\par I would put it on my head\par like a crown.\par

³⁷ If God did that, then I could explain\par everything that I have done.\par I could come to God like a leader\par with my head held high.\par

³⁸ “I didn’t steal my land from anyone.\par No one can accuse me of stealing it.\par

³⁹ I always paid the farmers for the food\par that I got from the land.\par And I never tried to take land away from\par the person who owned it.\par

⁴⁰ If I ever did any of those bad things,\par then let thorns and weeds\par grow in my fields\par instead of wheat and barley {\cf2\super [68]} !”\par