Job 31 in the early church

“I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,

let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,

For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,

if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,

if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,

if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.

If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler—

if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

(Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.

Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and wear it like a crown.

I would give account of all my steps; I would approach Him like a prince.)—

then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.