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Friday, July 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

New Life Version

Job 31:7

If my step has turned from the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, or if my hands have held on to sin,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Integrity;   Temptation;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Blot;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Achan;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Blot;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If my step has turned from the way,my heart has followed my eyes,or impurity has stained my hands,
Hebrew Names Version
If my step has turned out of the way, If my heart walked after my eyes, If any defilement has stuck to my hands,
King James Version
If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;
English Standard Version
if my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has stuck to my hands,
New Century Version
If I have turned away from doing what is right, or my heart has been led by my eyes to do wrong, or my hands have been made unclean,
New English Translation
If my footsteps have strayed from the way, if my heart has gone after my eyes, or if anything has defiled my hands,
Amplified Bible
"If my step has turned away from the way [of God], Or if my heart has [covetously] followed my eyes, Or if any spot [of guilt] has stained my hands,
New American Standard Bible
"If my step has turned from the way, Or my heart followed my eyes, Or if any spot has stuck to my hands,
World English Bible
If my step has turned out of the way, If my heart walked after my eyes, If any defilement has stuck to my hands,
Geneva Bible (1587)
If my steppe hath turned out of the way, or mine heart hath walked after mine eye, or if any blot hath cleaued to mine handes,
Legacy Standard Bible
If my step has turned from the way,Or my heart followed my eyes,Or if any spot has stuck to my hands,
Berean Standard Bible
If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or impurity has stuck to my hands,
Contemporary English Version
If I have disobeyed him or even wanted to,
Complete Jewish Bible
"If my steps have wandered from the way, if my heart has followed my eyes, if the least dirt has stuck to my hands;
Darby Translation
If my step have turned out of the way, and my heart followed mine eyes, and if any blot cleaveth to my hands;
Easy-to-Read Version
If I ever stepped off the right path, if my eyes led my heart to do evil, or if my hands are dirty with sin,
George Lamsa Translation
I have not turned aside my steps from the way, and my heart has not followed after my eyes, and I have acquired nothing unjustly;
Good News Translation
If I have turned from the right path or let myself be attracted to evil, if my hands are stained with sin,
Lexham English Bible
If my steps have turned aside from the way, and my heart has walked after my eyes, and my hand has clung to a spot,
Literal Translation
If my step has turned aside out of the way, or my heart has walked after my eyes, and if any blot has held fast to my hands,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf so be that I haue withdrawen my fote out of the right waye, yf my hert hath folowed myne eyesight, yf I haue stayned or defyled my hodes:
American Standard Version
If my step hath turned out of the way, And my heart walked after mine eyes, And if any spot hath cleaved to my hands:
Bible in Basic English
If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my hands;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If my step hath turned out of the way,
King James Version (1611)
If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaued to my hands:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
If my steppe hath turned out of the way, & myne heart walked after myne eyes, and if any blot haue cleaued to my handes:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if mine heart has followed mine eye, and if too I have touched gifts with my hands;
English Revised Version
If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any spot hath cleaved to mine hands:
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If my step bowide fro the weie; if myn iye suede myn herte, and a spotte cleuede to myn hondis;
Update Bible Version
If my step has turned out of the way, And my heart walked after my eyes, And if any spot has cleaved to my hands:
Webster's Bible Translation
If my step hath turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to my hands;
New King James Version
If my step has turned from the way, Or my heart walked after my eyes, Or if any spot adheres to my hands,
New Living Translation
If I have strayed from his pathway, or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen, or if I am guilty of any other sin,
New Revised Standard
if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If my goings have swerved from the way, - and, after mine eyes, hath gone my heart, and, to my hands, hath adhered any stain,
Douay-Rheims Bible
If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands:
Revised Standard Version
if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has cleaved to my hands;
Young's Literal Translation
If my step doth turn aside from the way, And after mine eyes hath my heart gone, And to my hands cleaved hath blemish,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If my step has turned from the way, Or my heart followed my eyes, Or if any spot has stuck to my hands,

Contextual Overview

1 "I have made an agreement with my eyes not to look with desire at a young woman. 2 What would be my share from God above? What would my gift be from the All-powerful on high? 3 Does not trouble come to those who are not right and good? Do not hard times come to those who do wrong? 4 Does He not see my ways and number all my steps? 5 "If I have walked in ways that are false, and my foot has been quick to follow false ways, 6 let Him weigh me with a true weight. Let God know that I am honest. 7 If my step has turned from the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, or if my hands have held on to sin, 8 then let me plant and another eat. Let what grows be pulled out by the roots.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If my: Psalms 44:20, Psalms 44:21

mine heart: Numbers 15:39, Ecclesiastes 11:9, Ezekiel 6:9, Ezekiel 14:3, Ezekiel 14:7, Matthew 5:29

cleaved: Psalms 101:3, Isaiah 33:15

Reciprocal: Ecclesiastes 6:9 - wandering of the desire Jeremiah 22:17 - thine eyes Ephesians 2:2 - in time 2 Peter 2:14 - eyes

Cross-References

Genesis 20:6
Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this with a heart of honor. And I kept you from sinning against Me. I did not let you touch her.
Genesis 31:14
Rachel and Leah answered him, "Do we still have any part or share in our father's house?
Genesis 31:15
Does he not think of us as strangers? For he has sold us. And he has used all the money that was paid for us.
Genesis 31:29
I have the power to hurt you. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak good or bad to Jacob.'
Genesis 31:41
I have been in your house twenty years. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock. And you changed my pay ten times.
Leviticus 26:26
When I take away your bread of life, ten women will make your bread in one stove. They will give out your bread by weight. And you will eat it and not be filled.
Numbers 14:22
All the men who have seen My greatness and My wonderful works which I did in Egypt and in the desert but have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, for sure, they
Nehemiah 4:12
When the Jews who lived by them came, they told us ten times, "They will come up against us from all the places where they live."
Job 1:10
Have You not made a wall around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have brought good to the work of his hands, and he has received more and more in the land.
Job 19:3
Ten times you have put me to shame and are not ashamed to wrong me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If my step hath turned out of the way,.... The way of God, the way of his commandments, the good and right way, the way of truth and righteousness, so far as Job had knowledge of it: for, besides the law and light of nature the Gentiles had in common, good men had some revelation, and notions of the mind and will of God unto them, both before and after the flood, previous to the Mosaic dispensation; which in some measure directed them what way to walk in, with respect to worship and duty; and from this way Job swerved not; not that he walked so perfectly in it as to be free from sin, and never commit any; or that he never took a step out of the way, or stepped awry; but he did not knowingly, wittingly, and purposely turn out of the way; and when, through infirmity of the flesh, the temptations of Satan, and snares of the world, he was drawn aside, he did not obstinately and finally persist therein; though this may have respect not to sin in general, but to the particular sin he is clearing himself from, namely, dealing falsely and deceitfully with men, in whatsoever he had to do with them, in matters of "meum" and "tuum"; or with regard to the rules of justice and equity between man and man, he was not conscious to himself he had departed from them; a like expression to those in Psalms 7:3, where some particular sin is referred unto:

and mine heart walked after mine eyes; meaning not in the lust of uncleanness, of which he had spoken before, as such do whose eyes are full of adultery; but in the sin of covetousness, so Achan's heart walked after his eyes, Joshua 7:20; and this is one of the three things the world is full of, and the men of it indulge themselves in, the lust of the eyes, 1 John 2:16; the sense is, that when he saw the riches and wealth of others, he did not covet them, nor take any illicit methods to get them out of their hands; or, when he saw the goods they were possessed of, and had with them to dispose of, he did not take the advantage of their ignorance, or use any evil ways and means to cheat and beguile them of them: it is pleasing to the flesh for the heart to walk after the eye, or to indulge to that which it is taken with; but it is very vain and foolish, as well as very dangerous so to do, Ecclesiastes 2:10; a good man chooses a better guide than his eyes; even to be a follower of God, to tread in the steps of his living Redeemer, to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and according to the law and will of God:

and if any blot cleaved to my hands; any spot, stain, or blemish, as all sin is of a defiling nature, particularly the hands may be blotted by shedding innocent blood, by taking bribes to pervert judgment; which the Septuagint version directs to here; and by getting, holding, and retaining mammon of unrighteousness, or ill gotten goods; which is what is chiefly if not solely intended here; for it may be rendered, "if any thing hath cleaved", c. so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom for the word signifies both a "blot" and "anything": and the Targum takes in both senses: the meaning seems to be, that there was not anything of another man's in his hands, which he had taken from him by force and violence, or find obtained by any deceitful methods, and which he held fast, and it stuck with him as pitch to the hands, and he did not care to part with it, or restore it, whereby his hands were defiled; otherwise Job had no such opinion of the cleanness of his hands and actions, as if he thought there was no spot of sin in them, or only such as he could wash out himself; he clearly speaks the contrary, Job 9:30; which is the sense of every good man, who, conscious of his spots and blemishes, washes his hands, his actions, his conversation garments, and makes them white in the blood of the Lamb; and such, and such only, have clean hands.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If my step hath turned out of the way - The path in which I ought to walk - the path of virtue.

And mine heart walked after mine eyes - That is, if I have coveted what my eyes have beheld; or if I have been determined by the appearance of things rather than by what is right, I consent to bear the appropriate punishment.

And if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands - To have clean hands is emblematic of innocence; Job 17:9; Psalms 24:4; compare Matthew 27:24. The word blot here means stain, blemish: Daniel 1:4. The idea is, that his hands were pure, and that he had not been guilty of any act of fraud or violence in depriving others of their property.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 31:7. If my step hath turned out of the way — I am willing to be sifted to the uttermost-for every step of my foot, for every thought of my heart, for every look of mine eye, and for every act of my hands.


 
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