Job 38
1 And YHWH answers Job out of the whirlwind and says:
Respondens autem Dominus Iob de turbine, dixit:
2 “Who [is] this—darkening counsel, By words without knowledge?
Quis est iste involvens sententias sermonibus imperitis?
3 Now gird your loins as a man, And I ask you, and you cause Me to know.
Accinge sicut vir lumbos tuos: interrogabo te, et responde mihi.
4 Where were you when I founded the earth? Declare, if you have known understanding.
Ubi eras quando ponebam fundamenta terræ? indica mihi si habes intelligentiam.
5 Who placed its measures—if you know? Or who has stretched out a line on it?
Quis posuit mensuras eius, si nosti? vel quis tetendit super eam lineam?
6 On what have its sockets been sunk? Or who has cast its cornerstone—
Super quo bases illius solidatæ sunt? aut quis demisit lapidem angularem eius,
7 In the singing together of [the] stars of morning, When all [the] sons of God shout for joy?
Cum me laudarent simul astra matutina, et iubilarent omnes filii Dei?
8 And He shuts up the sea with doors, In its coming forth, it goes out from the womb.
Quis conclusit ostiis mare, quando erumpebat quasi de vulva procedens:
9 In My making a cloud its clothing, And thick darkness its swaddling band,
Cum ponerem nubem vestimentum eius, et caligine illud quasi pannis infantiæ obvolverem?
10 And I measure My statute over it, And place bar and doors,
Circumdedi illud terminis meis, et posui vectem, et ostia:
11 And say, To here you come, and no more, And a command is placed On the pride of your billows.
Et dixi: Usque huc venies, et non procedes amplius, et hic confringes tumentes fluctus tuos.
12 Have you commanded morning since your days? Do you cause the dawn to know its place?
Numquid post ortum tuum præcepisti diluculo, et ostendisti auroræ locum suum?
13 To take hold on the skirts of the earth, And the wicked are shaken out of it,
Et tenuisti concutiens extrema terræ, et excussisti impios ex ea?
14 It turns itself as clay of a seal And they station themselves as clothed.
Restituetur ut lutum signaculum, et stabit sicut vestimentum:
15 And their light is withheld from the wicked, And the arm lifted up is broken.
Auferetur ab impiis lux sua, et brachium excelsum confringetur.
16 Have you come to springs of the sea? And in searching the deep Have you walked up and down?
Numquid ingressus es profunda maris, et in novissimis abyssi deambulasti?
17 Were the gates of death revealed to you? And do you see the gates of death-shade?
Numquid apertæ sunt tibi portæ mortis, et ostia tenebrosa vidisti?
18 You have understanding, Even to the broad places of earth! Declare—if you have known it all.
Numquid considerasti latitudinem terræ? indica mihi, si nosti, omnia,
19 Where [is] this—the way light dwells? And darkness, where [is] this—its place?
In qua via lux habitet, et tenebrarum quis locus sit:
20 That you take it to its boundary, And that you understand the paths of its house.
Ut ducas unumquodque ad terminos suos, et intelligas semitas domus eius.
21 You have known—for then you are born, And the number of your days [are] many!
Sciebas tunc quod nasciturus esses? et numerum dierum tuorum noveras?
22 Have you come to the treasure of snow? Indeed, do you see the treasures of hail,
Numquid ingressus es thesauros nivis, aut thesauros grandinis aspexisti,
23 That I have kept back for a time of distress, For a day of conflict and battle?
Quæ præparavi in tempus hostis, in diem pugnæ et belli?
24 Where [is] this, the way light is apportioned? It scatters an east wind over the earth.
Per quam viam spargitur lux, dividitur æstus super terram?
25 Who has divided a conduit for the flood? And a way for the lightning of the voices?
Quis dedit vehementissimo imbri cursum, et viam sonantis tonitrui,
26 To cause [it] to rain on a land [with] no man, A wilderness [with] no man in it.
Ut plueret super terram absque homine in deserto, ubi nullus mortalium commoratur,
27 To satisfy a desolate and ruined place, And to cause to shoot up The produce of the tender grass?
Ut impleret inviam et desolatam, et produceret herbas virentes?
28 Does the rain have a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
Quis est pluviæ pater? vel quis genuit stillas roris?
29 From whose belly came forth the ice? And the hoarfrost of the heavens, Who has begotten it?
De cuius utero egressa est glacies? et gelu de cælo quis genuit?
30 Waters are hidden as a stone, And the face of the deep is captured.
In similitudinem lapidis aquæ durantur, et superficies abyssi constringitur.
31 Do you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Or do you open the cords of Orion?
Numquid coniungere valebis micantes stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteris dissipare?
32 Do you bring out the twelve signs in [their] season? And do you comfort the Great Bear over her sons?
Numquid producis Luciferum in tempore suo, et Vesperum super filios terræ consurgere facis?
33 Have you known the statutes of the heavens? Or do you appoint Its dominion in the earth?
Numquid nosti ordinem cæli, et pones rationem eius in terra?
34 Do you lift up your voice to the cloud, And abundance of water covers you?
Numquid elevabis in nebula vocem tuam, et impetus aquarum operiet te?
35 Do you send out lightnings, and they go And say to you, Behold us?
Numquid mittes fulgura, et ibunt, et revertentia dicent tibi: Adsumus?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the covered part?
Quis posuit in visceribus hominis sapientiam? vel quis dedit gallo intelligentiam?
37 Who numbers the clouds by wisdom? And the bottles of the heavens, Who causes to lie down,
Quis enarrabit cælorum rationem, et concentum cæli quis dormire faciet?
38 In the hardening of dust into hardness, And clods cleave together?
Quando fundebatur pulvis in terra, et glebæ compingebantur?
39 Do you hunt prey for a lion? And fulfill the desire of young lions?
Numquid capies leænæ prædam, et animam catulorum eius implebis,
40 When they bow down in dens—Abide in a thicket for a covert?
Quando cubant in antris, et in specubus insidiantur?
41 Who prepares for a raven his provision, When his young ones cry to God? They wander without food.”
Quis præparat corvo escam suam, quando pulli eius clamant ad Deum, vagantes, eo quod non habeant cibos?
