The Book of Job — Liber Job
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Chapter 4
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Douay-Rheims><Vulgate><Knox Bible
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Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:
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Respondens autem Eliphaz Themanites, dixit:
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Thereupon Eliphaz the Themanite made answer:
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If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?
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Si cœperimus loqui tibi, forsitan moleste accipies; sed conceptum sermonem tenere quis poterit?
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Speak we, it may be thou wilt take our words amiss, yet speech will out.
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Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:
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Ecce docuisti multos, et manus lassas roborasti;
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Well thou knewest how to teach others, strengthen the drooping hands,
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Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:
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vacillantes confirmaverunt sermones tui, et genua trementia confortasti.
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give courage to the waverer, support to flagging knees, by counsel of thine.
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But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.
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Nunc autem venit super te plaga, et defecisti; tetigit te, et conturbatus es.
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Now the blow has fallen on thyself, and thy strength is gone; the nearer neighbourhood of misfortune unmans thee.
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Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
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Ubi est timor tuus, fortitudo tua, patientia tua, et perfectio viarum tuarum?
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No more we hear now of that fear of God, that life perfectly lived, which once gave thee confidence, gave thee strength to endure!
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Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?
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Recordare, obsecro te, quis umquam innocens periit? aut quando recti deleti sunt?
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And, sure enough, ruin never fell yet on the innocent; never yet was an upright soul lost to memory.
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On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,
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Quin potius vidi eos qui operantur iniquitatem, et seminant dolores, et metunt eos,
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The men that traffic in wrong-doing, that sow a crop of mischief they themselves must reap at last, these I have seen undone;
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Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.
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flante Deo perisse, et spiritu iræ ejus esse consumptos.
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one breath, one blast of the divine anger withers them quite, and they are gone.
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The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken:
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Rugitus leonis, et vox leænæ, et dentes catulorum leonum contriti sunt.
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Roar lion and growl lioness, the fangs of the lion-cubs will yet be shattered.
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The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.
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Tigris periit, eo quod non haberet prædam, et catuli leonis dissipati sunt.
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For lack of prey, the tiger goes his way at last, the young lions wander wide.
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Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth as it were received the veins of its whisper.
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Porro ad me dictum est verbum absconditum, et quasi furtive suscepit auris mea venas susurri ejus.
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Listen; here is a secret that was made known to me; it was but the breath of a whisper overheard.
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In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,
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In horrore visionis nocturnæ, quando solet sopor occupare homines,
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It was the hour when night visions breed disquiet, as men lie chained by sleep;
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Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:
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pavor tenuit me, et tremor, et omnia ossa mea perterrita sunt;
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fear took hold of me, a fit of trembling that thrilled my whole frame,
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And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
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et cum spiritus, me præsente, transiret, inhorruerunt pili carnis meæ.
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and made every hair bristle. All at once a spirit came beside me and stopped; there it stood,
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There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice as it were of a gentle wind:
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Stetit quidam, cujus non agnoscebam vultum, imago coram oculis meis, et vocem quasi auræ lenis audivi.
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no face I knew, yet I could see the form of it, and catch its voice, light as a rustling breeze.
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Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?
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Numquid homo, Dei comparatione, justificabitur? aut factore suo purior erit vir?
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Can man have right on his side, the voice asked, when he is matched with God? Can a mortal creature shew blameless in its Creator’s presence?
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Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:
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Ecce qui serviunt ei, non sunt stabiles, et in angelis suis reperit pravitatem;
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Nay, in his own retinue God finds loyalty wanting; angels may err.
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How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?
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quanto magis hi qui habitant domos luteas, qui terrenum habent fundamentum, consumentur velut a tinea?
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What, then, of Man, earth-bound in his house of clay, eaten away by the moth of time?
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From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.
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De mane usque ad vesperam succidentur; et quia nullus intelligit, in æternum peribunt.
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What of Man, cut down between morn and eve, doomed to perish unregarded,
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And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.
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Qui autem reliqui fuerint, auferentur ex eis; morientur, et non in sapientia.
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even the straggler marching on at last? Will he not die before he learns wisdom?