Job 31:16

16 "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

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 what then shall I do when God riseth up? And when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?

15 Did not He that made me in the womb make him? And did not One fashion us in the womb?

16 "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17 or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof

18 (for from my youth he was brought up with me as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb);