Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
respondens autem Dominus Iob de turbine dixit
2 “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?
quis est iste involvens sententias sermonibus inperitis
3 Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me.
accinge sicut vir lumbos tuos interrogabo te et responde mihi
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
ubi eras quando ponebam fundamenta terrae indica mihi si habes intellegentiam
5 Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?
quis posuit mensuras eius si nosti vel quis tetendit super eam lineam
6 On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,
super quo bases illius solidatae sunt aut quis dimisit lapidem angularem eius
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
cum me laudarent simul astra matutina et iubilarent omnes filii Dei
8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
quis conclusit ostiis mare quando erumpebat quasi de vulva procedens
9 when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,
cum ponerem nubem vestimentum eius et caligine illud quasi pannis infantiae obvolverem
10 when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
circumdedi illud terminis meis et posui vectem et ostia
11 and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
et dixi usque huc venies et non procedes amplius et hic confringes tumentes fluctus tuos
12 In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
numquid post ortum tuum praecepisti diluculo et ostendisti aurorae locum suum
13 that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
et tenuisti concutiens extrema terrae et excussisti impios ex ea
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
restituetur ut lutum signaculum et stabit sicut vestimentum
15 Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.
auferetur ab impiis lux sua et brachium excelsum confringetur
16 Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep?
numquid ingressus es profunda maris et in novissimis abyssis deambulasti
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
numquid apertae tibi sunt portae mortis et ostia tenebrosa vidisti
18 Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
numquid considerasti latitudines terrae indica mihi si nosti omnia
19 Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,
in qua via habitet lux et tenebrarum quis locus sit
20 so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?
ut ducas unumquodque ad terminos suos et intellegas semitas domus eius
21 Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great!
sciebas tunc quod nasciturus esses et numerum dierum tuorum noveras
22 Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,
numquid ingressus es thesauros nivis aut thesauros grandinis aspexisti
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle?
quae praeparavi in tempus hostis in diem pugnae et belli
24 In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?
per quam viam spargitur lux dividitur aestus super terram
25 Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,
quis dedit vehementissimo imbri cursum et viam sonantis tonitrui
26 to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,
ut plueret super terram absque homine in deserto ubi nullus mortalium commoratur
27 to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?
ut impleret inviam et desolatam et produceret herbas virentes
28 Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?
quis est pluviae pater vel quis genuit stillas roris
29 From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,
de cuius utero egressa est glacies et gelu de caelo quis genuit
30 when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen?
in similitudinem lapidis aquae durantur et superficies abyssi constringitur
31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?
numquid coniungere valebis micantes stellas Pliadis aut gyrum Arcturi poteris dissipare
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?
numquid producis luciferum in tempore suo et vesperum super filios terrae consurgere facis
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?
numquid nosti ordinem caeli et pones rationem eius in terra
34 Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
numquid elevabis in nebula vocem tuam et impetus aquarum operiet te
35 Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
numquid mittes fulgura et ibunt et revertentia dicent tibi adsumus
36 Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?
quis posuit in visceribus hominis sapientiam vel quis dedit gallo intellegentiam
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens
quis enarravit caelorum rationem et concentum caeli quis dormire faciet
38 when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?
quando fundebatur pulvis in terram et glebae conpingebantur
39 Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions
numquid capies leaenae praedam et animam catulorum eius implebis
40 when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket?
quando cubant in antris et in specubus insidiantur
41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?
quis praeparat corvo escam suam quando pulli eius ad Deum clamant vagantes eo quod non habeant cibos
