Job 31:19

THE MESSAGE

"Have I ever left a poor family shivering in the cold when they had no warm clothes? Didn't the poor bless me when they saw me coming, knowing I'd brought coats from my closet?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
if I have seen anyone dying for lack of clothingor a needy person without a cloak,

Hebrew Names Version
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering;

King James Version
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

English Standard Version
if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or the needy without covering,

New Century Version
I have not let anyone die for lack of clothes or let a needy person go without a coat.

New English Translation
If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without a coat,

Amplified Bible
If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, Or any poor person without covering,

New American Standard Bible
If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering,

World English Bible
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering;

Geneva Bible (1587)
If I haue seene any perish for want of clothing, or any poore without couering,

Legacy Standard Bible
If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,Or that the needy had no covering,

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

Contemporary English Version
I provided clothes for the poor,

Complete Jewish Bible
or if I saw a traveler needing clothing, someone in need who had no covering,

Darby Translation
If I have seen any perishing for want of clothing, or any needy without covering;

Easy-to-Read Version
Whenever I found people suffering because they didn't have clothes or saw a poor man with no coat,

George Lamsa Translation
If I have seen anyone perishing for want of clothing, or any poor without covering

Good News Translation
When I found someone in need, too poor to buy clothes,

Lexham English Bible
if I have seen the one who perishes because of no clothing or that there is no covering for the poor,

Literal Translation
If I have seen any perish for lack of clothing, or there was no covering for the needy;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Haue I sene eny man perish thorow nakednes & want of clothinge? Or, eny poore man for lack of rayment,

American Standard Version
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering;

Bible in Basic English
If I saw one near to death for need of clothing, and that the poor had nothing covering him;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If I have seen any wanderer in want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

King James Version (1611)
If I haue seene any perish for want of cloathing, or any poore without couering:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If I haue seene any perishe for want of clothing, or any poore for lake of rayment:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if too I overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him;

English Revised Version
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
if Y dispiside a man passynge forth, for he hadde not a cloth, and a pore man with out hilyng;

Update Bible Version
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering;

Webster's Bible Translation
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

New King James Version
If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, Or any poor man without covering;

New Living Translation
Whenever I saw the homeless without clothes and the needy with nothing to wear,

New Life Bible
if I have seen anyone die because he had no clothing, or left any poor person without clothes,

New Revised Standard
if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or a poor person without covering,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If I saw one perishing for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

Douay-Rheims Bible
If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering:

Revised Standard Version
if I have seen any one perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without covering;

Young's Literal Translation
If I see [any] perishing without clothing, And there is no covering to the needy,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering,

Contextual Overview

¹⁶"Have I ignored the needs of the poor, turned my back on the indigent, Taken care of my own needs and fed my own face while they languished? Wasn't my home always open to them? Weren't they always welcome at my table? ¹⁹"Have I ever left a poor family shivering in the cold when they had no warm clothes? Didn't the poor bless me when they saw me coming, knowing I'd brought coats from my closet? ²¹"If I've ever used my strength and influence to take advantage of the unfortunate, Go ahead, break both my arms, cut off all my fingers! The fear of God has kept me from these things— how else could I ever face him?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 22:6, 2 Chronicles 28:15, Isaiah 58:7, Matthew 25:36, Matthew 25:43, Luke 3:11, Acts 9:39, James 2:16, 1 John 3:18

Reciprocal: Job 24:7 - the naked Job 29:13 - ready Job 34:28 - they Ezekiel 18:16 - but hath Hebrews 13:2 - not

Cross-References

Genesis 31:4
So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, "I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn't treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn't changed; he's still with me. You know how hard I've worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me. If he said, ‘Your wages will consist of speckled animals' the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, ‘From now on your wages will be streaked animals' the whole flock would have streaked ones. Over and over God used your father's livestock to reward me.

Genesis 31:14
Rachel and Leah said, "Has he treated us any better? Aren't we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he's spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children's. Go ahead. Do what God told you."

Genesis 35:2
Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone since."

Hosea 3:4
The people of Israel are going to live a long time stripped of security and protection, without religion and comfort, godless and prayerless. But in time they'll come back, these Israelites, come back looking for their God and their David-King. They'll come back chastened to reverence before God and his good gifts, ready for the End of the story of his love.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If I have seen any perish for want of clothing,.... A man may be in such poor circumstances as to want proper clothing to cover his naked body with, and preserve it from the inclemencies of the weather, and for want of it be ready to perish or die with cold. Job denies he had seen any such; not that he had never seen persons in such perishing circumstances; but he had not seen them as to "despise" them, as the Vulgate Latin version, as to have them in contempt, or look at them with disdain because of their poverty and rags, or sordid apparel; or so as to "overlook" them, as the Septuagint version, to neglect them, and to take no notice of them, and make no provision for their clothing, a warm and comfortable garment, as in Job 31:20:

or any poor without covering; without clothing sufficient to cover himself with, and keep him warm; Job had seen such objects, but he did not leave them in such a condition; he saw them, and had compassion on them, and clothed them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I have seen any perish ... - He turns to another virtue of the same general class - that of providing for the poor. The meaning is clear, that he had always assisted the poor and needy.