Job 31:17

17 Taken care of my own needs and fed my own face while they languished?

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 same God who made me, make them? Aren't we all made of the same stuff, equals before God?
16 "Have I ignored the needs of the poor, turned my back on the indigent,
17 Taken care of my own needs and fed my own face while they languished?
18 Wasn't my home always open to them? Weren't they always welcome at my table?
19 "Have I ever left a poor family shivering in the cold when they had no warm clothes?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.