If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or [if] I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;
Ver. 9. If my heart hath been deceived by a woman] By a female sinner, as they call such, a strange woman (as the Scripture), whose lips are snares, whose hands are bands, whose words are cords to draw a man in, as an ox to the slaughter, Proverbs 7:21, whose face is as a glass, wherein while larks gaze they are taken in a day net (פחה, Hinc πειθω, persuadeo). Here Job disavoweth and disclaimeth the sin of adultery, purging himself, as it were, by oath, as before he had done of fornication, and of wrong dealing. These sins he reckoneth up, either as they came to mind, or else in such order as men are many times tempted to them. Young people are prone to fornication; Job, when young, had kept himself clear from that iniquity. When men have got some years over their heads, and are entered into the world, as they call it, they usually grow greedy and gripple; they are set upon it, and will be rich, however they come by it. Job was none such either, Job 31:5; Job 31:7. Afterwards, when married, they are sick of a pleurisy; and as the devil, who sets them to work, they long to be sowing another man's ground, Matthew 13:25. The temptation to fornication is strong, but to adultery stronger, Adulterium quasi ad alterius torum. God doth often punish fornication, unrepented of, with strong and vexing honings and hankerings after strange flesh. But Job either was never troubled in this way; or else, when the temptation came, he was sure to be ever out of the way. The devil's fire fell upon wet tinder; and if he knocked at Job's door, there was no one at home to look out at the window and let him in; for he considered the punishment both human, Job 31:11, and divine, Job 31:12, due to this great wickedness.
Or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door] Either as waiting the opportunity of his absence, as Proverbs 7:19, or as insinuating myself into her familiarity, while she was standing in her door. Of the Italian women one giveth this character, That though witty in speech, and modest in outward appearance, yet they are magpies at the door, goats in the garden, devils in the house, angels in the streets, and syrens in the windows. Job's heart was not deceived by any such; neither sought he to defraud his brother in any such matter, 1 Thessalonians 4:5,6. See Trapp on " Joh 8:4 "