Job 31:16

16 "If I held back anything needed by the poor or made a widow's eye grow dim [with tears],

Job 31:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 31:16

If I have withheld the poor from [their] desire
Their reasonable desires, and which it was in his power to grant; as when they desired a piece of bread, being hungry, or clothes to cover them, being naked; but not unreasonable desires, seeking and asking great things for themselves, or unlimited and unbounded ones, such as the two sons of Zebedee desired of Christ, ( Mark 10:35 ) ;

or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
through long waiting for, and expecting help and succour from him, and at last disappointed. Job did not use the widow in such a manner as to give her reason to hope for relief or counsel from him she came for, and make her wait long, and then send her away empty, as he was charged, ( Job 22:9 ) ; but he soon dispatched her, by granting her what she sued to him for.

Job 31:16 In-Context

14 then what would I do if God stood up? Were he to intervene, what answer could I give?

15 Didn't he who made me in the womb make them too? Didn't the same one shape us both before our birth?

16 "If I held back anything needed by the poor or made a widow's eye grow dim [with tears],

17 or ate my portion of food by myself, without letting the orphan eat any of it

18 No! From my youth he grew up with me as if with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother's womb!