Job 31:21
if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,
BSB
ASV
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, Because I saw my help in the gate:
KJV
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself uppermost in the gate. It was the custom with those of old that the elders should sit at the gate to make out by judicial trial the quarrels of persons at strife, in order that the city, in which it was befitting that they should dwell in concord, they should never enter at variance. And hence the Lord saith by the Prophet, Establish judgment in the gate.
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless - That is, if I have taken advantage of my rank, influence, and power, to oppress and injure him. When I saw my help in the gate - The gate of a city was a place of concourse; a place where debates were held, and where justice was administered. Job speaks here of that part of his life when he was clothed with authority as a magistrate, or when he had power and influence as a public man.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Jeremiah 5:28They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the…
leads to
Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
Through
Micah 7:3Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.
leads to
Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster…
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
Through
Job 29:12because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.
leads to
For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too shall cry out and receive no answer.
Through
Ezekiel 22:7Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
leads to
‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.