Job 31:9
in Job 31If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman, And I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door;
KJV
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;
⋯
This verse in Job 31
Commentary
9 notes on this verseIf mine heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door. Though it sometimes happens that the sin of fornication is not at all different from the guilt of adultery, seeing that Truth saith; Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.
This site's exposition
my heart has been enticed
on Job 31:9-10
“If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife” names adultery specifically. Gill reads the grinding as the labor of a captive or slave, the fullest domestic humiliation Job can name. Clarke notes that the oath's severity matches the gravity the crime carries under the law Job cites.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
He did not say, my eyes, but, my heart; I never allowed, he says, my thoughts to become corrupted, or my body either. This is exactly what Christ says: "He who has cast his glance upon a woman to desire her has already committed adultery in his heart."
The Medieval Church1 voice
In adultery, however, a man plots deceitfully against the wife of his neighbor, and this plot is preceded by a certain deception of heart, as long as reason is darkened by concupiscence, and so he says, "If my heart has been deceived by a woman," …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
), 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.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,....
The beauty of another man's wife did not kindle in him any unchaste desires, nor was he ever moved by the allurements of an adulterous woman, such as is described, Prov. vii. See the original of all the defilements of the life; they come from a deceived heart. Every sin is deceitful, and none more so than the sin of uncleanness.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman - If I have been enticed by her beauty. The word rendered “deceived” פתה pâthâh means to open, to expand. It is then applied to that which is open or ingenuous; to that which is unsuspicious - like a youth; and thence is used in the sense of being deceived, or enticed; Deu 11:16; Exo 22:16; Pro 1:10; Pro 16:29. The word “woman” here probably means a married woman, and stands opposed to “virgin” in ver.
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman - The Septuagint add, ανδρος ἑτερου, another man’s wife.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
may my wife grind for someone else Our Sages explained this as an expression of sexual intercourse, as in (Jud.:21), “and he did grind in the prison house.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| נִפְתָּ֣ה | niftah | it has been deceived | H6601 → | 28 times |
| לִ֭בִּי | libi | heart my | H3820 → | 595 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אִשָּׁ֑ה | ʾishah | a woman | H802 → | 781 times |
| וְעַל־ | veal- | and at | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| פֶּ֖תַח | petach | [the] doorway of | H6607 → | |
| רֵעִ֣י | rei | neighbor my | H7453 → | 188 times |
| אָרָֽבְתִּי׃ | ʾaraveti | I have lain in wait | H693 → |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
נִפְתָּ֣הit has been deceived
niftahH6601 →28 times
לִ֭בִּיheart my
libiH3820 →595 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
אִשָּׁ֑הa woman
ʾishahH802 →781 times
וְעַל־and at
veal-H5921 →5755 times
פֶּ֖תַח[the] doorway of
petachH6607 →
רֵעִ֣יneighbor my
reiH7453 →188 times
אָרָֽבְתִּי׃I have lain in wait
ʾaravetiH693 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Ecclesiastes 7:26And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is…
it leads to
- Proverbs 22:14
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
- Proverbs 5:3–5
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
- Proverbs 2:16
It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over…
- Proverbs 2:18–19
For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
- Proverbs 22:14
Through
1 Kings 11:4For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 9:4
And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and…
- 1 Kings 8:61
So let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD our God, as it is this day, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments.”
- 1 Kings 9:4
Through
Judges 16:5The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him.…
it leads to
- Joshua 13:3
All the territory of the Philistines and the Geshurites, from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the five Philistine rulers of…
- Joshua 13:3
Where this verse is studied
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXI; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:8-10; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.