to cut (off · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
covenant
בְּ֭רִיתBe.rit
H1285
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of fl… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
eyes
לְעֵינָ֑יle.'ei.Nai
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
think
אֶ֝תְבּוֹנֵ֗ן'et.bo.Nen
H995
to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, hithpael imperfect, 1st person common singular
maid
בְּתוּלָֽהbe.tu.Lah
H1330
a virgin (from her privacy) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
James 1:14-15 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Matthew 5:28-29 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Psalms 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the wo…
Proverbs 6:25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
2 Samuel 11:2-4 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he…
Proverbs 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Genesis 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 31:1-8
The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are the two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard.
I. Against the lusts of the flesh. He not only kept himself clear from adultery, from defiling his neighbour's wives (Job 31:9), but from all lewdness with any women whatsoever. He kept no concubine, no mistress, but was inviolably faithful to the marriage bed, though his wife was none of the wisest, best, or kindest. From the beginning it was so, that a man should have but one wife and cleave to her only; and Job kept closely to that institution and abhorred the thought of transgressing it; for, though his greatness m…
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 particularly to uncleanness, of which there have been instances, both in bad men and good men, Genesis 34:2; so the poet (t) represents the eye as the way through which the beauty of a woman passes swifter than an arrow into the hearts of men, and makes impressions there; see 2 Peter 2:14; hence Zaleucus ordered adulterers to be punished, by plucking out the eyes of the adulterer (u); wherefore Job, to prevent this, entered into a solemn engagement with himself, laid himself under a strong obligati…
1 I have made a covenant with mine eyes,
And how should I fix my gaze upon a maiden!
2 What then would be the dispensation of Eloah from above,
And the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights -
3 Doth not calamity overtake the wicked,
And misfortune the workers of evil?
4 Doth He not see my ways
And count all my steps?
After Job has described and bewailed the harsh contrast between the former days and the present, he gives us a picture of his moral life and endeavour, in connection with the character of which the explanation of his present affliction as a divinely decreed punishment becomes impossible, and the sudden overthrow of his prosperity into this abyss of suffering becomes to h…
The Church Fathers
Deep affect is tightly united with this verse. Not even at the time, he says, when the sweetness of the harp softened my ears did I allow any lustful feeling to dwell in my heart, even though the sounds tuned with art affected the senses. "I have made a covenant with my eyes." After the search for justice and the feeling of mercifulness, he places the virtue of chastity in the highest position.
"I made a pact with my eyes. Have I ever hoped in this visible world? "Not to stop my thoughts on a virgin. As if he said: that this never happens to me. Here he begins to retrace the triumph of the Church, in those who persevere to the end, in spite of the greatest temptations, while iniquity abounds, and the charity of a great number cools. "And I will not stop my thoughts on a virgin," led by incorruptible wisdom and holiness.
I made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not even think upon a maid. Whereas the soul is invisible, it is in no degree affected by the delightfulness of things corporeal, except that, being closely attached to the body, it has the senses of that body as a kind of opening for going forth. For seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, are a kind of ways of the mind, by which it should come forth without, and go a lusting after the things that are without the limits of its substance. For by these senses of the body as by a kind of windows the soul takes a view of the several exterior objects, and on viewing longs after them. For hence Jeremiah saith; For death is come up through our windows, and is entered into our palaces; for 'death comes up by the windows and enters into the palace,' when concupiscence coming through the senses of the body enters the dwelling-place of the mind. Contrary whereunto that which we have often already said touching the righteous is spoken by Isaiah; Who are they that fly as clouds, and as the doves at their windows? For the righteous are said to fly as clouds, because they are lifted up from the defilements of earth, and they are 'as doves at their windows,' because through the senses of the body they do not regard the several objects without with the bent of rapacity, and carnal concupiscence does not carry those persons off without. But he who through those windows of the body heedlessly looks without, very often falls even against his will into the delightfulness of sin, and being fast bound by desires, he begins to will what he willed not. For the precipitate soul, whilst it does not forecast beforehand, that it should not incautiously see what it might lust after, begins afterwards with blinded eyes to desire the thing that it saw. And hence the mind of the Prophet, which being uplifted was often admitted to interior mysteries, because he beheld the wife of another without heed, being darkened afterwards joined her to him without right. But the holy man, who as a kind of judge of greatest equity is set over the senses granted him in the body, as over subject officers, sees offences before they come, and closes the windows of the body as against a plotting enemy, saying, I made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not even think upon a maid. For that he might preserve the thoughts of the heart with chastity,…
Dictionary and topics
Chastity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Continence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Covenants · Illustrative: Of good resolutions — Illustrative: Of good resolutions
Eye, The · A guard to be set on — A guard to be set on
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Job called down curses on himself if he were guilty of the accusations made against him. Except for his mention of idolatry (31:26-27), Job addressed his fidelity to God in terms of the second half of the Ten Commandments, summarized by the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18; Rom 13:9).
31:1 Job’s covenant with his eyes included a self-cursing oath (cp. Matt 5:28-29). Perhaps lust of the eyes was at the head of Job’s list because the eye is the first instrument of sin (Gen 3:6). • To look with lust at a young woman violates the spirit of the seventh (Deut 5:18, see Matt 5:27-28), and potentially the tenth (Deut 5:21), commandment.
Rashi on Job 31:1
I made a covenant with my eyes not to gaze upon a married woman.
and why should I gaze upon a virgin? Why should I gaze upon her? Such was Job’s piety, not to lay an eye even on an unmarried woman. [He would say,] “Perhaps, after a time, she will be married, and I will find myself attracted to her.” So is [this verse] explained in Avoth D’Rabbi Nathan (2:5).
