---
title: "Job 31 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/job/31/
description: "Job, to defend himself from the unjust judgments of his friends, gives a sincere… Job 31 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Job 31

Job 31 is chapter 31 of 42 in the Book of Job. Here are all 40 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Job, to defend himself from the unjust judgments of his friends, gives a sincere account of his own virtues.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Job 31 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. I reached an agreement with my eyes, that I would not so much as think about a virgin.
2. For what portion should God from above hold for me, and what inheritance should the Almighty from on high keep?
3. Is not destruction held for the wicked and repudiation kept for those who work injustice?
4. Does he not examine my ways and number all my steps?
5. If I have walked in vanity, or if my foot has hurried towards deceitfulness,
6. let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity.
7. If my steps have turned aside from the way, or if my heart has followed my eyes, or if a blemish has clung to my hands,
8. then may I sow, and let another consume, and let my offspring be eradicated.
9. If my heart has been deceived over a woman, or if I have waited in ambush at my friend’s door,
10. then let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lean over her.
11. For this is a crime and a very great injustice.
12. It is a fire devouring all the way to perdition, and it roots out all that springs forth.
13. If I have despised being subject to judgment with my servant or my maid, when they had any complaint against me,
14. then what will I do when God rises to judge, and, when he inquires, how will I respond to him?
15. Is not he who created me in the womb, also he who labored to make him? And did not one and the same form me in the womb?
16. If I have denied the poor what they wanted and have made the eyes of the widow wait;
17. if I have eaten my morsel of food alone, while orphans have not eaten from it;
18. (for from my infancy mercy grew with me, and it came out with me from my mother’s womb;)
19. if I have looked down on him who was perishing because he had no clothing and the poor without any covering,
20. if his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21. if I have lifted up my hand over an orphan, even when it might seem to me that I have the advantage over him at the gate;
22. then may my shoulder fall from its joint, and may my arm, with all its bones, be broken.
23. For I have always feared God, like waves flowing over me, whose weight I was unable to bear.
24. If I have considered gold to be my strength, or if I have called purified gold ‘my Trust;’
25. if I have rejoiced over my great success, and over the many things my hand has obtained;
26. if I gazed upon the sun when it shined and the moon advancing brightly,
27. so that my heart rejoiced in secret and I kissed my hand with my mouth,
28. which is a very great iniquity and a denial against the most high God;
29. if I have been glad at the ruin of him who hated me and have exulted that evil found him,
30. for I have not been given my throat to sin by asking for a curse on his soul;
31. if the men around my tabernacle have not said: “He might give us some of his food, so that we will be filled,”
32. for the foreigner did not remain at the door, my door was open to the traveler;
33. if, as man does, I have hidden my sin and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom;
34. if I became frightened by an excessive crowd, and the disrespect of close relatives alarmed me, so that I would much rather have remained silent or have gone out the door;
35. then, would he grant me a hearing, so that the Almighty would listen to my desire, and he who judges would himself write a book,
36. which I would then carry on my shoulder and wrap around me like a crown?
37. With each of my steps, I would pronounce and offer it, as if to a prince.
38. So, if my land cries out against me, and if its furrows weep with it,
39. if I have used its fruits for nothing but money and have afflicted the souls of its tillers,
40. then, may thistles spring forth for me instead of grain, and thorns instead of barley. (This ended the words of Job.)

## Job 31 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Pepigi fœdus cum oculis meis, ut ne cogitarem quidem de virgine.
2. Quam enim partem haberet in me Deus desuper, et hæreditatem Omnipotens de excelsis?
3. Numquid non perditio est iniquo, et alienatio operantibus injustitiam?
4. Nonne ipse considerat vias meas, et cunctos gressus meos dinumerat?
5. Si ambulavi in vanitate, et festinavit in dolo pes meus,
6. appendat me in statera justa, et sciat Deus simplicitatem meam.
7. Si declinavit gressus meus de via, et si secutum est oculos meos cor meum, et si manibus meis adhæsit macula,
8. seram, et alius comedat, et progenies mea eradicetur.
9. Si deceptum est cor meum super muliere, et si ad ostium amici mei insidiatus sum,
10. scortum alterius sit uxor mea, et super illam incurventur alii.
11. Hoc enim nefas est, et iniquitas maxima.
12. Ignis est usque ad perditionem devorans, et omnia eradicans genimina.
13. Si contempsi subire judicium cum servo meo et ancilla mea, cum disceptarent adversum me:
14. quid enim faciam cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus? et cum quæsierit, quid respondebo illi?
15. Numquid non in utero fecit me, qui et illum operatus est, et formavit me in vulva unus?
16. Si negavi quod volebant pauperibus, et oculos viduæ expectare feci;
17. si comedi buccellam meam solus, et non comedit pupillus ex ea
18. (quia ab infantia mea crevit mecum miseratio, et de utero matris meæ egressa est mecum);
19. si despexi pereuntem, eo quod non habuerit indumentum, et absque operimento pauperem;
20. si non benedixerunt mihi latera ejus, et de velleribus ovium mearum calefactus est;
21. si levavi super pupillum manum meam, etiam cum viderem me in porta superiorem:
22. humerus meus a junctura sua cadat, et brachium meum cum suis ossibus confringatur.
23. Semper enim quasi tumentes super me fluctus timui Deum, et pondus ejus ferre non potui.
24. Si putavi aurum robur meum, et obrizo dixi: Fiducia mea;
25. si lætatus sum super multis divitiis meis, et quia plurima reperit manus mea;
26. si vidi solem cum fulgeret, et lunam incedentem clare,
27. et lætatum est in abscondito cor meum, et osculatus sum manum meam ore meo:
28. quæ est iniquitas maxima, et negatio contra Deum altissimum.
29. Si gavisus sum ad ruinam ejus qui me oderat, et exsultavi quod invenisset eum malum:
30. non enim dedi ad peccandum guttur meum, ut expeterem maledicens animam ejus.
31. Si non dixerunt viri tabernaculi mei: Quis det de carnibus ejus, ut saturemur?
32. foris non mansit peregrinus: ostium meum viatori patuit.
33. Si abscondi quasi homo peccatum meum, et celavi in sinu meo iniquitatem meam;
34. si expavi ad multitudinem nimiam, et despectio propinquorum terruit me: et non magis tacui, nec egressus sum ostium.
35. Quis mihi tribuat auditorem, ut desiderium meum audiat Omnipotens, et librum scribat ipse qui judicat,
36. ut in humero meo portem illum, et circumdem illum quasi coronam mihi?
37. Per singulos gradus meos pronuntiabo illum, et quasi principi offeram eum.
38. Si adversum me terra mea clamat, et cum ipsa sulci ejus deflent:
39. si fructus ejus comedi absque pecunia, et animam agricolarum ejus afflixi:
40. pro frumento oriatur mihi tribulus, et pro hordeo spina. Finita sunt verba Job.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 26: If I behold the sun and moon with admiration, knowing them to be created and governed by the power of God, I call on my adversaries to produce any thing against me, whereby I could be charged with worshipping the sun or moon.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).