And thus Job continued to lay bare his thought:

Addidit quoque Job, assumens parabolam suam, et dixit:

Job also added, taking up his parable, and said:

As sure as he is a living God, he, the omnipotent, who so refuses me justice, who makes my lot in life so bitter;

Vivit Deus, qui abstulit judicium meum, et Omnipotens, qui ad amaritudinem adduxit animam meam.

As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment, and the Almighty, who hath brought my soul to bitterness,

while life is in me, while he still grants me breath,

Quia donec superest halitus in me, et spiritus Dei in naribus meis,

As long as breath remaineth in me, and the spirit of God in my nostrils,

never shall these lips justify the wrong, never this tongue utter the lie!

non loquentur labia mea iniquitatem, nec lingua mea meditabitur mendacium.

My lips shall not speak iniquity, neither shall my tongue contrive lying.

Gain your point with me you shall not; I will die sooner than abandon my plea of innocence.

Absit a me ut justos vos esse judicem: donec deficiam, non recedam ab innocentia mea.

God forbid that I should judge you to be just: till I die I will not depart from my innocence.

That claim, once made, I will not forgo; not one act in all my life bids conscience reproach me.

Justificationem meam, quam cœpi tenere, non deseram: neque enim reprehendit me cor meum in omni vita mea.

My justification, which I have begun to hold, I will not forsake: for my heart doth not reprehend me in all my life.

Count him a knave that is my enemy, every detractor of mine a friend of wrong!

Sit ut impius, inimicus meus, et adversarius meus quasi iniquus.

Let my enemy be as the ungodly, and my adversary as the wicked one.

(What is the sinner’s hope worth after all his greedy getting, when God takes the life away from him? In that hour of need,

Quæ est enim spes hypocritæ, si avare rapiat, et non liberet Deus animam ejus?

For what is the hope of the hypocrite if through covetousness he take by violence, and God deliver not his soul?

his cry for reprieve will go unheard;

Numquid Deus audiet clamorem ejus, cum venerit super eum angustia?

Will God hear his cry, when distress shall come upon him?

he cannot go on for ever basking in the Almighty’s favour, calling God to his aid.

aut poterit in Omnipotente delectari, et invocare Deum omni tempore?

Or can he delight himself in the Almighty, and call upon God at all times?

Now be God’s hand laid bare, now let me acknowledge openly the counsels of omnipotence!

Docebo vos per manum Dei quæ Omnipotens habeat, nec abscondam.

I will teach you by the hand of God, what the Almighty hath, and I will not conceal it.

Not one of you but knows the truth of it already; yet one and all you must be urging a false plea, without the need for it!

Ecce vos omnes nostis: et quid sine causa vana loquimini?

Behold you all know it, and why do you speak vain things without cause?

What spoil, after all, does God grant to the wicked? From his almighty hand, what abiding possession does the man of violence receive?

Hæc est pars hominis impii apud Deum, et hæreditas violentorum, quam ob Omnipotente suscipient.

This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the inheritance of the violent, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

Sons beget he never so many, what avails it, when the sword overtakes them, and their children in turn must go wanting bread,

Si multiplicati fuerint filii ejus, in gladio erunt, et nepotes ejus non saturabuntur pane:

If his sons be multiplied, they shall be for the sword, and his grandsons shall not be filled with bread.

when the plague gives all the rest of his line their burial, and never a widow to bemoan them?

qui reliqui fuerint ex eo sepelientur in interitu, et viduæ illius non plorabunt.

They that shall remain of him, shall be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep.

What avails it, to heap up silver like the sand, buy fine clothes, too, and think such treasures cheap as dirt,

Si comportaverit quasi terram argentum, et sicut lutum præparaverit vestimenta:

If he shall heap together silver as earth, and prepare raiment as clay,

if more upright men than he, more innocent than he, must have the wearing of those clothes, share out that silver at last?

præparabit quidem, sed justus vestietur illis, et argentum innocens dividet.

He shall prepare indeed, but the just man shall be clothed with it: and the innocent shall divide the silver.

Light as the moth he builds; not so frail a shelter the vineyard-watcher weaves about him.

Ædificavit sicut tinea domum suam, et sicut custos fecit umbraculum.

He hath built his house as a moth, and as a keeper he hath made a booth.

Rich he is laid to rest, but nothing takes with him; rich he shall wake no more.

Dives, cum dormierit, nihil secum auferet: aperiet oculos suos, et nihil inveniet.

The rich man when he shall sleep shall take away nothing with him: he shall open his eyes and find nothing.

Helpless in the flood, driven in darkness by the storm,

Apprehendet eum quasi aqua inopia: nocte opprimet eum tempestas.

Poverty like water shall take hold on him, a tempest shall oppress him in the night:

carried off, as if sirocco or whirlwind had swept him away,

Tollet eum ventus urens, et auferet, et velut turbo rapiet eum de loco suo.

A burning wind shall take him up, and carry him away, and as a whirlwind shall snatch him from his place.

he is routed before the pitiless onslaught,

Et mittet super eum, et non parcet: de manu ejus fugiens fugiet.

And he shall cast upon him, and shall not spare: out of his hand he would willingly flee.

hands clapped in triumph, tongues hissing in derision as he goes.)

Stringet super eum manus suas, et sibilabit super illum, intuens locum ejus.

He shall clasp his hands upon him, and shall hiss at him, beholding his place.