Job 31:17

17 if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

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 He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

16 If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

17 if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

18 though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

19 if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,