31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, 1
or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,
and did not share any of it with orphans 2 –
31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan 3 like a father,
and from my mother’s womb 4
I guided the widow! 5
1 tn Heb “kept the poor from [their] desire.”
2 tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”
3 tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.
4 tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”
5 tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.