Job 31:8–11

¹⁶I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

¹⁵Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.

³⁸Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

³⁰Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

³¹Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

³²Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

³³The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

⁵¹And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

¹⁹He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

¹⁸That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

⁶They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.

⁴His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.

⁵Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.

³And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;

⁴And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.

⁵For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.

⁶And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.

¹³Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

⁴For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

⁵And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.

⁴They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

⁸They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

¹⁵The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

¹⁶To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

¹⁷Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

¹⁸For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

¹⁹None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

¹⁴The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.

²⁵Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

³¶ For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

⁴But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

⁶Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

⁷Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

⁹Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

¹²And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

¹⁴I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

¹⁵¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

¹⁶Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

¹⁷Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.

¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

¹⁹Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

²⁰And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.

²²¶ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

²³He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

²¹With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

¹⁰Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

¹¹Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

³⁰Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

²Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

⁵And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

¹³They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

⁴¹Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

¹⁰¶ And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

²²¶ If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

²³¶ If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

²⁴Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.

²⁸This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

²⁴¶ And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

¹⁴Thou shalt not commit adultery.

³⁸And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

²⁹So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

³⁰Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

³¹But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

³²But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

³³A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

¹⁰And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

⁹There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?