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