Job 31:1

Third division JOB’S ASSEVERATION OF HIS INNOCENCE, UNDER THE MOST SOLEMN APPEALS TO GOD, chapter 31. First strophe, Job 31:1-8.

a. A preliminary declaration that he had prescribed terms to the most treacherous of the senses, and planted a guard over his entire being, and that, too, impelled by the highest considerations of regard for God, Job 31:1-4.

1. With mine eyes The eyes, says a Talmudic proverb, are “the procuresses of evil.” So intimately is this most delicate and precious of the senses related to the soul, that Pliny said of the mind. “it certainly dwells in the eyes.” Here the eye is singled out as a representative sense, as if he who had the mastery of this were lord of all. Job has “made a covenant” to ( ל ) or for his eyes prescribed limitations with all the form and solemnity of a covenant, which, through the divine strength of grace, he has determined they shall not transgress.

Why then should I think How then should I look, or gaze, look wistfully upon, אתבונן . Thus translated, there is a striking resemblance in this question to the saying of Christ, (Matthew 5:28.) At a time when polygamy or some other form of concubinage almost universally prevailed, Job stands conspicuously forth as a high-toned moralist, who looked upon chastity of the heart as no less important than chastity of the life.