Job 4
1 Respondens autem Eliphaz Themanites, dixit:
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 [Si cœperimus loqui tibi, forsitan moleste accipies; sed conceptum sermonem tenere quis poterit?
“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Ecce docuisti multos, et manus lassas roborasti;
Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
4 vacillantes confirmaverunt sermones tui, et genua trementia confortasti.
Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
5 Nunc autem venit super te plaga, et defecisti; tetigit te, et conturbatus es.
But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Ubi est timor tuus, fortitudo tua, patientia tua, et perfectio viarum tuarum?
Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
7 Recordare, obsecro te, quis umquam innocens periit? aut quando recti deleti sunt?
Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
8 Quin potius vidi eos qui operantur iniquitatem, et seminant dolores, et metunt eos,
As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
9 flante Deo perisse, et spiritu iræ ejus esse consumptos.
By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
10 Rugitus leonis, et vox leænæ, et dentes catulorum leonum contriti sunt.
The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 Tigris periit, eo quod non haberet prædam, et catuli leonis dissipati sunt.
The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 Porro ad me dictum est verbum absconditum, et quasi furtive suscepit auris mea venas susurri ejus.
Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 In horrore visionis nocturnæ, quando solet sopor occupare homines,
In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 pavor tenuit me, et tremor, et omnia ossa mea perterrita sunt;
fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
15 et cum spiritus, me præsente, transiret, inhorruerunt pili carnis meæ.
Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
16 Stetit quidam, cujus non agnoscebam vultum, imago coram oculis meis, et vocem quasi auræ lenis audivi.
It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:
17 Numquid homo, Dei comparatione, justificabitur? aut factore suo purior erit vir?
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
18 Ecce qui serviunt ei, non sunt stabiles, et in angelis suis reperit pravitatem;
If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
19 quanto magis hi qui habitant domos luteas, qui terrenum habent fundamentum, consumentur velut a tinea?
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
20 De mane usque ad vesperam succidentur; et quia nullus intelligit, in æternum peribunt.
They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Qui autem reliqui fuerint, auferentur ex eis; morientur, et non in sapientia.]
Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
