Job 38
1 Respondens autem Dominus Job de turbine, dixit:
And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said,
2 Quis est iste involvens sententias sermonibus imperitis?
Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge?
3 Accinge sicut vir lumbos tuos: interrogabo te, et responde mihi.
Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.
4 Ubi eras quando ponebam fundamenta terræ? indica mihi, si habes intelligentiam.
Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge.
5 Quis posuit mensuras ejus, si nosti? vel quis tetendit super eam lineam?
By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it?
6 Super quo bases illius solidatæ sunt? aut quis demisit lapidem angularem ejus,
On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone,
7 cum me laudarent simul astra matutina, et jubilarent omnes filii Dei?
When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy?
8 Quis conclusit ostiis mare, quando erumpebat quasi de vulva procedens;
Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place;
9 cum ponerem nubem vestimentum ejus, et caligine illud quasi pannis infantiæ obvolverem?
When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it,
10 Circumdedi illud terminis meis, et posui vectem et ostia,
Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors;
11 et dixi: Usque huc venies, et non procedes amplius, et hic confringes tumentes fluctus tuos.
And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped?
12 Numquid post ortum tuum præcepisti diluculo, et ostendisti auroræ locum suum?
Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place;
13 Et tenuisti concutiens extrema terræ, et excussisti impios ex ea?
So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it?
14 Restituetur ut lutum signaculum, et stabit sicut vestimentum:
It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is coloured like a robe;
15 auferetur ab impiis lux sua, et brachium excelsum confringetur.
And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the arm of pride is broken.
16 Numquid ingressus es profunda maris, et in novissimis abyssi deambulasti?
Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in the secret places of the deep?
17 Numquid apertæ sunt tibi portæ mortis, et ostia tenebrosa vidisti?
Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you?
18 Numquid considerasti latitudinem terræ? indica mihi, si nosti, omnia:
Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all.
19 in qua via lux habitet, et tenebrarum quis locus sit:
Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark;
20 ut ducas unumquodque ad terminos suos, et intelligas semitas domus ejus.
So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its house?
21 Sciebas tunc quod nasciturus esses, et numerum dierum tuorum noveras?
No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great.
22 Numquid ingressus es thesauros nivis, aut thesauros grandinis aspexisti,
Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you seen the store-houses of the ice-drops,
23 quæ præparavi in tempus hostis, in diem pugnæ et belli?
Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting?
24 Per quam viam spargitur lux, dividitur æstus super terram?
Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?
25 Quis dedit vehementissimo imbri cursum, et viam sonantis tonitrui,
By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder;
26 ut plueret super terram absque homine in deserto, ubi nullus mortalium commoratur;
Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living, on the waste land which has no people;
27 ut impleret inviam et desolatam, et produceret herbas virentes?
To give water to the land where there is waste and destruction, and to make the dry land green with young grass?
28 Quis est pluviæ pater? vel quis genuit stillas roris?
Has the rain a father? or who gave birth to the drops of night mist?
29 De cujus utero egressa est glacies? et gelu de cælo quis genuit?
Out of whose body came the ice? and who gave birth to the cold mist of heaven?
30 In similitudinem lapidis aquæ durantur, et superficies abyssi constringitur.
The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the face of the deep is covered.
31 Numquid conjungere valebis micantes stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteris dissipare?
Are the bands of the Pleiades fixed by you, or are the cords of Orion made loose?
32 Numquid producis luciferum in tempore suo, et vesperum super filios terræ consurgere facis?
Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or are the Bear and its children guided by you?
33 Numquid nosti ordinem cæli, et pones rationem ejus in terra?
Have you knowledge of the laws of the heavens? did you give them rule over the earth?
34 Numquid elevabis in nebula vocem tuam, et impetus aquarum operiet te?
Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be covered by the weight of waters?
35 Numquid mittes fulgura, et ibunt, et revertentia dicent tibi: Adsumus?
Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go, and say to you, Here we are?
36 Quis posuit in visceribus hominis sapientiam? vel quis dedit gallo intelligentiam?
Who has put wisdom in the high clouds, or given knowledge to the lights of the north?
37 Quis enarrabit cælorum rationem? et concentum cæli quis dormire faciet?
By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth,
38 Quando fundebatur pulvis in terra, et glebæ compingebantur?
When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined together in masses?
39 Numquid capies leænæ prædam, et animam catulorum ejus implebis,
Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough,
40 quando cubant in antris, et in specubus insidiantur?
When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood?
41 Quis præparat corvo escam suam, quando pulli ejus clamant ad Deum, vagantes, eo quod non habeant cibos?
Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God; when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food?
