The Book of Job — Liber Job
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Chapter 28
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Vulgate><Douay-Rheims><Knox Bible
1
Habet argentum venarum suarum principia, et auro locus est in quo conflatur.
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Silver hath beginnings of its veins, and gold hath a place wherein it is melted.
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Where, then, does wisdom lie? Easy to trace where the veins of silver run, where gold-ore is refined,
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Ferrum de terra tollitur, et lapis solutus calore in æs vertitur.
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Iron is taken out of the earth, and stone melted with heat is turned into brass.
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where iron is dug from the depths of earth, and rocks must be melted to yield copper.
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Tempus posuit tenebris, et universorum finem ipse considerat: lapidem quoque caliginis et umbram mortis.
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He hath set a time for darkness, and the end of all things he considereth, the stone also that is in the dark and the shadow of death.
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See how man has done away with the darkness, has pierced into the very heart of things, into caves under ground, black as death’s shadow!
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Dividit torrens a populo peregrinante eos quos oblitus est pes egentis hominis, et invios.
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The flood divideth from the people that are on their journey, those whom the food of the needy man hath forgotten, and who cannot be come at.
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Where yonder ravine cuts them off from the shepherd-folk, the miners toil, forgotten; lost to all track, far from the haunts of men.
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Terra de qua oriebatur panis, in loco suo igni subversa est.
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The land, out of which bread grew in its place, hath been overturned with fire.
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That earth, from whose surface our bread comes to us, must be probed by fire beneath,
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Locus sapphiri lapides ejus, et glebæ illius aurum.
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The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and the clods of it are gold.
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till the rocks yield sapphires, and the clods gold.
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Semitam ignoravit avis, nec intuitus est eam oculus vulturis.
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The bird hath not known the path, neither hath the eye of the vulture beheld it.
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Here are passages no bird discovers in its flight, no vulture’s eye has seen;
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Non calcaverunt eam filii institorum, nec pertransivit per eam leæna.
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The children of the merchants have not trodden it, neither hath the lioness passed by it.
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that never gave roving merchant shelter, or the lioness a lair.
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Ad silicem extendit manum suam: subvertit a radicibus montes.
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He hath stretched forth his hand to the flint, he hath overturned mountains from the roots.
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Boldly man matches himself against the flint, uproots the mountain,
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In petris rivos excidit, et omne pretiosum vidit oculus ejus.
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In the rocks he hath cut out rivers, and his eye hath seen every precious thing.
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cuts channels through the rock, where things of price have dazzled his eye;
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Profunda quoque fluviorum scrutatus est, et abscondita in lucem produxit.
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The depths also of rivers he hath searched, and hidden things he hath brought forth to light.
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narrowly he scans the river’s depths, and brings to light all they hide.
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Sapientia vero ubi invenitur? et quis est locus intelligentiæ?
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But where is wisdom to be found, and where is the place of understanding?
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But wisdom, tell me where to search for wisdom; tell me in what cache discernment lies?
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Nescit homo pretium ejus, nec invenitur in terra suaviter viventium.
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Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of them that live in delights.
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How should man set a price on it? This earth our pleasant home, yields no return of it;
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Abyssus dicit: Non est in me, et mare loquitur: Non est mecum.
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The depth saith: It is not in me: and the sea saith: It is not with me.
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Not here, cries the abyss beneath us, and the sea echoes, Not here.
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Non dabitur aurum obrizum pro ea, nec appendetur argentum in commutatione ejus.
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The finest gold shall not purchase it, neither shall silver be weighed in exchange for it.
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Not for pure gold is it bartered, or weighed against silver in the balance;
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Non conferetur tinctis Indiæ coloribus, nec lapidi sardonycho pretiosissimo vel sapphiro.
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It shall not be compared with the dyed colours of India, or with the most precious stone sardonyx, or the sapphire.
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not the bright wares of the Indies, nor jewel of sardonyx, nor sapphire can vie with it;
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Non adæquabitur ei aurum vel vitrum, nec commutabuntur pro ea vasa auri.
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Gold or crystal cannot equal it, neither shall any vessels of gold be changed for it.
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it is not to be matched with treasures of glass or gold, rivalled by all the goldsmith’s workmanship.
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Excelsa et eminentia non memorabuntur comparatione ejus: trahitur autem sapientia de occultis.
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High and eminent things shall not be mentioned in comparison of it: but wisdom is drawn out of secret places.
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Do not talk of coral or of crystal; for wisdom you must make deeper search still;
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Non adæquabitur ei topazius de Æthiopia, nec tincturæ mundissimæ componetur.
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The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be equal to it, neither shall it be compared to the cleanest dyeing.
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with wisdom the topaz from Ethiopia and the finest gold-leaf cannot compare.
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Unde ergo sapientia venit? et quis est locus intelligentiæ?
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Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?
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Whence, then, does wisdom come to us; where is discernment to be found?
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Abscondita est ab oculis omnium viventium: volucres quoque cæli latet.
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It is hid from the eyes of all living, and the fowls of the air know it not.
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That is the secret kept hidden from beast on earth and bird in heaven;
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Perditio et mors dixerunt: Auribus nostris audivimus famam ejus.
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Destruction and death have said: With our ears we have heard the fame thereof.
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the shadow-world of death claims no more than to have heard the rumour of it.
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Deus intelligit viam ejus, et ipse novit locum illius.
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God understandeth the way of it, and he knoweth the place thereof.
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Only God knows the way to it, only God can tell where it lies,
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Ipse enim fines mundi intuetur, et omnia quæ sub cælo sunt respicit.
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For he beholdeth the ends of the world: and looketh on all things that are under heaven.
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he whose view reaches to the world’s end, sees all that passes under the wide heavens.
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Qui fecit ventis pondus, et aquas appendit in mensura.
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Who made a weight for the winds, and weighed the waters by measure.
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He, when first he took scale and measuring-line to set wind and water their task,
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Quando ponebat pluviis legem, et viam procellis sonantibus:
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When he gave a law for the rain, and a way for the sounding storms.
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when he appointed a time for the rain’s abating, and a track for the whistling storm,
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tunc vidit illam et enarravit, et præparavit, et investigavit.
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Then he saw it, and declared, and prepared, and searched it.
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descried wisdom already; traced its plan, and set all in order, and mastered it.
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Et dixit homini: Ecce timor Domini, ipsa est sapientia; et recedere a malo, intelligentia.
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And he said to man: Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom: and to depart from evil, is understanding.
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To man, he has told this much, that wisdom is fearing the Lord; there lies discernment, in refusing the evil path.