Job 31:17

17 or have eaten my food alone without letting the orphan eat any of it....

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 he who made me in my mother's belly make them? Didn't the same God form us in the womb?

16 "If I have refused the requests of the poor or made a widow's eyes stop [looking for help],

17 or have eaten my food alone without letting the orphan eat any of it....

18 (From my youth the orphan grew up with me as though I were his father, and from my birth I treated the widow kindly.)

19 If I have seen anyone die because he had no clothes or a poor person going naked....