Job 31:17

17 If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

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 that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?

16 If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:

17 If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

18 (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother’s womb:)

19 If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering: