Bible Strands
Job 31:7
If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly in a conditional oath, listing specific moral failures he denies committing before asking for divine weighing of his integrity.
The words — The Hebrew אִם ('im) "if" introduces the conditional structure, while תִּטֶּה (ti.Teh) "it turned aside" describes his steps deviating from הַדֶּרֶךְ (ha.Derekh) "the path." The phrase וְאַחַר עֵינַי (ve.'a.Char 'Ei.na.i) "and after my eyes" literally renders the sequence of heart following sight.
The thread — The tension between physical sight and moral direction appears in Matthew 5:29 regarding the eye causing sin and Numbers 15:39 regarding visual reminders to obey commandments.
Why it lands — The text demands honest self-examination against a fixed standard, forcing the reader to verify whether their actual conduct matches their claimed integrity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
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;
Cross-references
- Numbers 15:39 These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.
- Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.
- Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
- Job 23:11 My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.
- Psalms 44:20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
- Psalms 101:3 I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
- Isaiah 33:15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—
- Ezekiel 6:9 Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
- Ezekiel 14:3 “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?
- Ezekiel 14:7 For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me, I the LORD will answer him Myself.