“If my heart has been seduced by a woman, or if I have lusted for my neighbor’s wife,
Parallel translations
- WEB “If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
- KJV If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;
- BSB If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,
- NKJV “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,
- NASB ¶“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job swears he has not been seduced into adultery or lain in wait at his neighbor's door. He defends his faithfulness in marriage.
Overview
Job denies that his heart has been enticed toward another man's wife or that he has schemed to commit adultery. This affirms his obedience to the moral law protecting marriage and his neighbor's household. Marital faithfulness reflects God's covenant love, and the union of husband and wife ultimately pictures Christ and his bride the church, whose faithfulness to one another the gospel upholds.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Kgs 11:4When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father was.
- Eccl 7:26I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
- Judg 16:5The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, “Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
- Hos 7:4They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
- Job 24:15–16The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face.
- Prov 22:14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
- Prov 6:25Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
- Neh 13:26Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.
- Prov 2:16–19To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
- Jer 5:8They were as fed horses roaming at large: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
- Prov 7:21With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
- Prov 5:3–23For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 31:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.