Job 31:16

16 If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose;

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 will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions?

15 Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us life in our mothers' bodies?

16 If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose;

17 If I kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it to the child with no father;

18 (For I was cared for by God as by a father from my earliest days; he was my guide from the body of my mother;)