Job 31:17

17 I haven't kept my bread to myself. I've shared it with children whose fathers had died.

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 make my servants also? Didn't the same God form us inside our mothers?

16 "I haven't said no to what poor people have wanted. I haven't let widows lose their hope.

17 I haven't kept my bread to myself. I've shared it with children whose fathers had died.

18 From the time I was young, I've helped those widows. I've raised those children as a father would.

19 Suppose I've seen people dying because they didn't have any clothes. I've seen needy people who had nothing to wear.