Job 31:17

17 eaten my morsel alone, and not shared any with an orphan

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 Didn't the one who made me in the belly make them; didn't the same one fashion us in the womb?

16 If I have denied what the poor wanted, made a widow's eyes tired,

17 eaten my morsel alone, and not shared any with an orphan

18 (for from my youth I raised the orphan as a father, and from my mother's womb I led the widow);

19 if I ever saw someone dying without clothes, the needy naked;