Job 23
1 Respondens autem Job, ait:
And Job answered and said,
2 [Nunc quoque in amaritudine est sermo meus, et manus plagæ meæ aggravata est super gemitum meum.
Even to-day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
3 Quis mihi tribuat ut cognoscam et inveniam illum, et veniam usque ad solium ejus?
Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his seat!
4 Ponam coram eo judicium, et os meum replebo increpationibus:
I would order the cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments;
5 ut sciam verba quæ mihi respondeat, et intelligam quid loquatur mihi.
I would know the words he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
6 Nolo multa fortitudine contendat mecum, nec magnitudinis suæ mole me premat.
Would he plead against me with [his] great power? Nay; but he would give heed unto me.
7 Proponat æquitatem contra me, et perveniat ad victoriam judicium meum.
There would an upright man reason with him; and I should be delivered for ever from my judge.
8 Si ad orientem iero, non apparet; si ad occidentem, non intelligam eum.
Lo, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9 Si ad sinistram, quid agam? non apprehendam eum; si me vertam ad dexteram, non videbo illum.
On the left hand, where he doth work, but I behold [him] not; he hideth himself on the right hand, and I see [him] not.
10 Ipse vero scit viam meam, et probavit me quasi aurum quod per ignem transit.
But he knoweth the way that I take; he trieth me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 Vestigia ejus secutus est pes meus: viam ejus custodivi, et non declinavi ex ea.
My foot hath held to his steps; his way have I kept, and not turned aside.
12 A mandatis labiorum ejus non recessi, et in sinu meo abscondi verba oris ejus.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have laid up the words of his mouth more than the purpose of my own heart.
13 Ipse enim solus est, et nemo avertere potest cogitationem ejus: et anima ejus quodcumque voluit, hoc fecit.
But he is in one [mind], and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, that will he do.
14 Cum expleverit in me voluntatem suam, et alia multa similia præsto sunt ei.
For he will perform [what] is appointed for me; and many such things are with him.
15 Et idcirco a facie ejus turbatus sum, et considerans eum, timore sollicitor.
Therefore am I troubled at his presence; I consider, and I am afraid of him.
16 Deus mollivit cor meum, et Omnipotens conturbavit me.
For God hath made my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me;
17 Non enim perii propter imminentes tenebras, nec faciem meam operuit caligo.]
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he hidden the gloom from me.
