Job 31:17

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

Job 31:17 Meaning and Commentary

Job 31:17

Or have eaten my morsel myself alone
Though he had kept no doubt a plentiful table in the time of his prosperity suitable to his circumstances, yet had been no luxurious person, and therefore calls provisions a "morsel"; however, be it what it would, more or less, he did not eat it alone; what he had for himself the poor had a share of it with him, and the same he ate himself he gave to them:

and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:
meaning the poor fatherless: for as to the rich fatherless, it was no charity to feed them: this verse contradicts the charge exhibited against him, ( Job 22:7 ) .

Job 31:17 In-Context

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;)

19 If I saw one near to death for need of clothing, and that the poor had nothing covering him;