Job 31:16

16 If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:

Job 31:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 31:16

If I have withheld the poor from [their] desire
Their reasonable desires, and which it was in his power to grant; as when they desired a piece of bread, being hungry, or clothes to cover them, being naked; but not unreasonable desires, seeking and asking great things for themselves, or unlimited and unbounded ones, such as the two sons of Zebedee desired of Christ, ( Mark 10:35 ) ;

or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
through long waiting for, and expecting help and succour from him, and at last disappointed. Job did not use the widow in such a manner as to give her reason to hope for relief or counsel from him she came for, and make her wait long, and then send her away empty, as he was charged, ( Job 22:9 ) ; but he soon dispatched her, by granting her what she sued to him for.

Job 31:16 In-Context

14 For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?

15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?

16 If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:

17 If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

18 (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother’s womb:)