A reading from the book of Job.

I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze at a virgin? What would be my portion

from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high? Is not calamity for the unrighteous,

and disaster for the workers of iniquity. Does not he see my ways and number all my steps?

If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit,

let me be weighed and adjust balance and let God know my integrity.

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,

then let me sow, and another eat,

and let what grows from me be rooted out.

If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,

then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down on her.

For that would be a heinous crime, that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,

for that would be a fire that consumes

as far as a badden, and it would burn to the root all my increase. If I rejected the cause of my

man-servant or my maid-servant when they brought a complaint against me, what then shall I do when

God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him, and did not one

fashion us in the womb, if I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the

eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it?

For from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother's womb,

I guided the widow. If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or the needy without

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