Job 31:1

I made a covenant with mine eyes,.... Not to look upon a woman, and wantonly gaze at her beauty, lest his heart should be drawn thereby to lust after her; for the eyes are inlets to many sins, and

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? Job 31:1-40. Job proceeds to prove that he deserved a better lot.

JOB CHAPTER 31 He protesteth his continency and chastity; God’ s providence, presence, and judgments; his motives, . His just dealings, . Free from adultery, which ought to be punished by the magistrate, . His just carriage to his servants, and the reason, . His bounty to the poor, for fear of God, and his highness, . Not covetous, nor idolatrous, which ought to be punished by the magistrate, . Not revengeful, ,30. Hospitable to strangers, ,32. His repentance, . He wisheth God would answer, and his words might be recorded, . His imprecation against himself, if he spoke not the truth, . So far have I been from wallowing in the mire of uncleanness, or any gross wickedness, wherewith you charge me, that I have abstained even from the least occasions and appearances of evil, having made a solemn resolution within myself, and a solemn covenant and promise to God, that I would not wantonly or lustfully fix mine eyes or gaze upon a maid, lest mine eyes should affect my heart, and stir me up to further filthiness. Hereby we plainly see that that command of Christ. , was no new command peculiar to the gospel, as some would have it, but the very same which the law of God revealed in his word, and written in men’ s hearts by nature, imposed upon men in the times of the Old Testament. See also . Should I think upon, i.e. indulge myself in filthy and lustful thoughts? Seeing I was obliged, and accordingly took care, to guard mine eyes, I was upon the same reason obliged to restrain my imagination. Or, why then should I consider, or contemplate, or look curiously, or thoughtfully, or diligently? Since I had made such a covenant, why should I not keep it? A maid; which is emphatically added, to show that that circumstance which provokes the lust of others had no such power over him, and that he restrained himself from the very thoughts and desires of filthiness with such persons, wherewith the generality of men allowed themselves to commit gross fornication, as deeming it to be either none, or but a very little sin. Withal he insinuates with how much more caution he kept himself from uncleanness with any married person.

Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?Ver. 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes] This chapter, since it is one of the largest in all the book, so it is elegant, various, and very full of matter; for it shows us, as in a mirror, both what we should do and what we should not do. Good Melancthon, about the beginning of the Reformation, mournfully complained, Quos fugiamus habemus; quos sequamur non intelligimus, We have whom to flee from (meaning the Papists), but whom to follow, we yet understand not (by reason of the many divisions among Protestants). But here we may be at a better certainty; by treading in Job’ s footsteps, and striving to express him to the world; who against all the cavils and calumnies of his foe friends, makes it out here, that he is no hypocrite or flagitious person as they falsely charged him, but a man fearing God and eschewing evil, Job 1:1. Let therefore as many as would be perfect be thus minded and thus mannered; propounding to themselves the highest pitch and the best patterns; resolving to resemble them as much as may be. Here we have Job’ s holy care to flee fornication as a deadly evil; by avoiding the occasion, by taking bonds of his senses, and by doing all be could to be out of the way when the temptation came. Austin thanks God that the temptation and his heart met not. Job would prevent that mischief by laying laws upon his eyes, those windows of wickedness and loop holes of lust, the very door and bait of all evil concupiscence, Matthew 5:29 1 John 2:16, that flesh pleaslng lust, that nest egg of the devil (as one wittily calleth it), that eldest child of old Adam’ s strength, bearing name of the mother, which is called in general, lust, or concupiscence. Now that Job might not lust, he would not look on a forbidden object; for he knew that wanton glances cause contemplative wickedness; such as will soon break out into foul practices; as ill humours in the body do into sores and blotches, εκτουορανγινεταιτοεραν, Ut vidi, ut perii! - oculi sunt in amore duces. Why then should I think upon a maid?] Contemplarer in virginem, Lustfully consider her beauty, till my heart be hot as an oven with lawless lusts, and my body wollows in the mire of that abominable filth. For unbridled lust, like the wild fig, will soon mount over the wall; and those base, vain, wanton, capering thoughts will break out, if not timely suppressed; if we handle them not roughly at the door (as Elisha said), their master’ s feet will not be far behind them. Quell them therefore and crush them in the egg; it is not safe being at Satan’ s meal, though our spoon be never so long; remember, that of looking comes thinking; and of thinking, worse.

XXXI.(1) I made a covenant with mine eyes.—Job makes one grand profession of innocence, rehearsing his manner of life from the first; and here he does not content himself with traversing the accusations of his friends, but professes his innocence also of sins less manifest to the observance of others, and affecting the secret conduct and the heart—namely, sensual transgression and idolatry. His object, therefore, is to show his friends that he has really been more upright than their standard demanded or than they supposed him to be, till his affliction made them suspect him; and this uprightness was the consequence of rigid and inflexible adherence to principle, for he made a covenant with his eyes, as the avenues of sinful desires. (Comp. Matthew 5:28.)

CHAPTER XXXI Job makes a solemn protestation of his chastity and integrity, 1-12; of his humanity, 13-16; of his charity and mercy, 17-23; of his abhorrence of covetousness and idolatry, 24-32; and of his readiness to acknowledge his errors, 33, 34; and wishes for a full investigation of his case, being confident that this would issue in the full manifestation of his innocence, 36-40. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI Verse 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes] ברית כרתי לעיני berith carats leeynai: "I have cut" or divided "the covenant sacrifice with my eyes." My conscience and my eyes are the contracting parties; God is the Judge; and I am therefore bound not to look upon any thing with a delighted or covetous eye, by which my conscience may be defiled, or my God dishonoured. Why then should I think upon a maid?] ומה אתבונן על בתולה umah ethbonen al bethulah. And why should I set myself to contemplate, or think upon, Bethulah? That Bethulah may here signify an idol, is very likely. Sanchoniatho observes, that Ouranos first introduced Baithulia when he erected animated stones, or rather, as Bochart observes, ANOINTED stones, which became representatives of some deity. I suppose that Job purges himself here from this species of idolatry. Probably the Baithulia were at first emblems only of the tabernacle; בית אלוה beith Eloah, "the house of God;" or of that pillar set up by Jacob, Genesis 28:18, which he called בית אלהים beith Elohim, or Bethalim; for idolatry always supposes a pure and holy worship, of which it is the counterfeit. For more on the subject of the Baithulia, See Clarke on Genesis 28:19.

1–12. Job clears himself of cherishing or yielding to sensuous desires. This idea is pursued through a series of instances; (1) simple desire, excited by the eye, Job 31:1-4; (2) actual yielding to such desire in word or deed, Job 31:5-8; (3) the grossest form of sensual sin, Job 31:9-12.

I made a covenant with mine eyes - The first virtue of his private life to which Job refers is chastity.

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