Job 31:9–31:15, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 31:9–31:15
Job Denies Adultery and Grounds Servant Justice in One Creator
Adultery would be a fire, and Job denies the fire
If his heart has been deceived by a woman, or if he has laid wait at his neighbor's door, then let his wife grind for another, and let others bow down on her. That, he says, would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be punished by the judges, a fire that consumes to destruction and roots out all increase.
The oath takes adultery as public harm, not a private sport. The imagined penalty falls on household and land. Ancient legal imagination is not a later instruction to punish a wife for a husband's crime.
Servants have a case because they have the same Maker
If Job despised the cause of his manservant or his maidservant when they contended with him, what would he do when God rises up? When God visits, what would he answer? Did not he that made Job in the womb make them? Did not one fashion them in the womb?
The argument is explosive inside an ancient household: the laborer's case must be heard because the Creator is one. The line condemns contempt. It does not baptize slavery, ownership of persons, sexual use of workers, or a world where some people are tools. One womb-Maker is a reason to end exploitation, not a reason to keep the institution tidy.
How this should shape us
Hear the people whose work you depend on, because they are not a different species. Do not use Job's household world to justify owning persons, and do not treat another person's marriage as a place to hunt.
Teach it back
Explain Job 31:9–31:15 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
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Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 31:9–31:15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 31:9–31:15
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 31:9–31:15.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 31:9–31:15
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 31:9–31:15
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 31:9–31:15
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 31:9–31:15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 31:9–31:15
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 31:9–31:15.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 31:9–31:15
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 31:9–31:15
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗peer reviewed open access literary and theological article
A Matter of Justice: The Openness of the Book of Job
Hans Ausloos
Old Testament Essays 36.1, 2023
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Exact location: Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 31:9–31:15
Open Ausloos on Job and justice ↗