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