The Book of Job — Liber Job
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Chapter 14
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Vulgate><Douay-Rheims><Knox Bible
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Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore, repletur multis miseriis.
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Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.
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So frail man’s life, woman-born, so full of trouble,
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Qui quasi flos egreditur et conteritur, et fugit velut umbra, et numquam in eodem statu permanet.
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Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state.
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brief as a flower that blooms and withers, fugitive as a shadow, changing all the while;
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Et dignum ducis super hujuscemodi aperire oculos tuos, et adducere eum tecum in judicium?
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And dost thou think it meet to open thy eyes upon such an one, and to bring him into judgment with thee?
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and is he worth that watchfulness of thine, must thou needs call him to account?
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Quis potest facere mundum de immundo conceptum semine? nonne tu qui solus es?
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Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? is it not thou who only art?
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(Who can cleanse what is born of tainted stock, save thou alone, who alone hast being? )
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Breves dies hominis sunt: numerus mensium ejus apud te est: constituisti terminos ejus, qui præteriri non poterunt.
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The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds which cannot be passed.
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Brief, brief are man’s days; thou keepest count of the months left to him, thou dost appoint for him the bound he may not pass.
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Recede paululum ab eo, ut quiescat, donec optata veniat, sicut mercenarii, dies ejus.
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Depart a little from him, that he may rest, until his wished for day come, as that of the hireling.
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And wilt thou not leave him undisturbed for a little, till the welcome day comes when drudgery is at an end?
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Lignum habet spem: si præcisum fuerit, rursum virescit, et rami ejus pullulant.
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A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.
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Were he but as the trees are! A tree has hope to live by: pollarded, it still grows green, and fresh branches spring from it.
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Si senuerit in terra radix ejus, et in pulvere emortuus fuerit truncus illius,
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If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust:
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Root and stock old and withered, down in the dusty earth,
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ad odorem aquæ germinabit, et faciet comam, quasi cum primum plantatum est.
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At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted.
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but at the breath of water it revives, and the leaves come, as they came when it first was planted.
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Homo vero cum mortuus fuerit, et nudatus, atque consumptus, ubi, quæso, est?
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But man when he shall be dead, and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he?
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For us mortal men, death; a stripping, and a breathing out of the soul, and all is over.
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Quomodo si recedant aquæ de mari, et fluvius vacuefactus arescat:
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As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up:
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Where is the sea, when its waters dry up, the river when its bed is empty?
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sic homo, cum dormierit, non resurget: donec atteratur cælum, non evigilabit, nec consurget de somno suo.
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So man when he is fallen asleep shall not rise again; till the heavens be broken. he shall not awake, nor rise up out of his sleep.
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So man falls asleep, never to rise again while heaven endures; from that sleep there is no waking, there is no rousing him.
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Quis mihi hoc tribuat, ut in inferno protegas me, et abscondas me donec pertranseat furor tuus, et constituas mihi tempus in quo recorderis mei?
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Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?
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Ah, if the grave were only a place of shelter, where thou wouldst hide me away until thy anger was spent, with a time appointed when thou wouldst bethink thyself of me again!
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Putasne mortuus homo rursum vivat? cunctis diebus quibus nunc milito, expecto donec veniat immutatio mea.
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Shall man that is dead, thinkest thou, live again? all the days in which I am now in warfare, I expect until my change come.
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Ah, if the dead might live again! Then I could wait willingly enough, all the time of my campaigning, till I were relieved at my post;
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Vocabis me, et ego respondebo tibi: operi manuum tuarum porriges dexteram.
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Thou shalt call me, and I will answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt reach out thy right hand.
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thou wouldst summon me at last, and I would answer thy summons, thy creature, safe in thy loving hand!
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Tu quidem gressus meos dinumerasti: sed parce peccatis meis.
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Thou indeed hast numbered my steps, but spare my sins.
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So jealous a record thou keepest of every step I take, and hast thou never a blind eye for my faults?
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Signasti quasi in sacculo delicta mea, sed curasti iniquitatem meam.
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Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag, but hast cured my iniquity.
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Instead, must thou seal up every wrong-doing of mine, as in a casket; embalm the memory of my transgressions?
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Mons cadens defluit, et saxum transfertur de loco suo:
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A mountain falling cometh to nought, and a rock is removed out of its place.
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Nay there is no help for it; mountain-side or cliff that begins to crumble scales away and vanishes at last,
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lapides excavant aquæ, et alluvione paulatim terra consumitur: et hominem ergo similiter perdes.
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Waters wear away the stones, and with inundation the ground by little and little is washed away: so in like manner thou shalt destroy man.
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water hollows into the hard rock, and floods wear away the firm ground at last, and thou hast made no less inevitable man’s doom.
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Roborasti eum paululum, ut in perpetuum transiret: immutabis faciem ejus, et emittes eum.
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Thou hast strengthened him for a little while, that he may pass away for ever: thou shalt change his face, and shalt send him away.
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His brief mastery thou takest away for ever; the lively hue changes, and he is gone.
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Sive nobiles fuerint filii ejus, sive ignobiles, non intelliget.
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Whether his children come to honour or dishonour, he shall not understand.
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His children rise to honour, sink to shame, and he none the wiser;
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Attamen caro ejus, dum vivet, dolebit, et anima illius super semetipso lugebit.
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But yet his flesh, while he shall live, shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him.
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nothing man feels save the pains that rack him in life, the griefs that fret his soul.