Job 31:9-12

If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

Job asserts his innocence of adultery.

Deceived - hath let itself be seduced (Proverbs 7:8, etc.; Genesis 39:7).

Laid wait - until the husband went out.

Verse 10. Grind - turn the handmill. Be the most abject slave and concubine (Isaiah 47:2; 2 Samuel 12:11).

Verse 11. In the earliest times punished with death (Genesis 38:24). So in later times (Deuteronomy 22:22). Heretofore he had spoken only of sins against conscience; now, one against the community, needing the cognizance of the judge.

Verse 12. (Proverbs 6:27, "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife;" Proverbs 7:6; Proverbs 7:26.) No crime more provokes God to send destruction as a consuming fire; none so desolates the soul.