HOLY BIBLE: Job 14 (original) (raw)

7 ἔστιν γὰρ δένδρῳ ἐλπίς ἐὰν γὰρ ἐκκοπῇ ἔτι ἐπανθήσει καὶ ὁ ῥάδαμνος αὐτοῦ οὐ μὴ ἐκλίπῃ 8 ἐὰν γὰρ γηράσῃ ἐν γῇ ἡ ῥίζα αὐτοῦ ἐν δὲ πέτρᾳ τελευτήσῃ τὸ στέλεχος αὐτοῦ 9 ἀπὸ ὀσμῆς ὕδατος ἀνθήσει ποιήσει δὲ θερισμὸν ὥσπερ νεόφυτον 10 ἀνὴρ δὲ τελευτήσας ᾤχετο πεσὼν δὲ βροτὸς οὐκέτι ἔστιν 11 χρόνῳ γὰρ σπανίζεται θάλασσα ποταμὸς δὲ ἐρημωθεὶς ἐξηράνθη 12 ἄνθρωπος δὲ κοιμηθεὶς οὐ μὴ ἀναστῇ ἕως ἂν ὁ οὐρανὸς οὐ μὴ συρραφῇ καὶ οὐκ ἐξυπνισθήσονται ἐξ ὕπνου αὐτῶν 13 εἰ γὰρ ὄφελον ἐν ᾅδῃ με ἐφύλαξας ἔκρυψας δέ με ἕως ἂν παύσηταί σου ἡ ὀργὴ καὶ τάξῃ μοι χρόνον ἐν ᾧ μνείαν μου ποιήσῃ 14 ἐὰν γὰρ ἀποθάνῃ ἄνθρωπος ζήσεται συντελέσας ἡμέρας τοῦ βίου αὐτοῦ ὑπομενῶ ἕως ἂν πάλιν γένωμαι 15 εἶτα καλέσεις ἐγὼ δέ σοι ὑπακούσομαι τὰ δὲ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σου μὴ ἀποποιοῦ

7 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. 8 Root and stock old and withered, down in the dusty earth, 9 but at the breath of water it revives, and the leaves come, as they came when it first was planted. 10 For us mortal men, death; a stripping, and a breathing out of the soul, and all is over. 11 Where is the sea, when its waters dry up, the river when its bed is empty? 12 So man falls asleep, never to rise again while heaven endures; from that sleep there is no waking, there is no rousing him. 13 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![2] 14 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; 15 thou wouldst summon me at last, and I would answer thy summons, thy creature, safe in thy loving hand![3]

7
Lignum habet spem:
si præcisum fuerit, rursum virescit,
et rami ejus pullulant. 8
Si senuerit in terra radix ejus,
et in pulvere emortuus fuerit truncus illius, 9
ad odorem aquæ germinabit,
et faciet comam, quasi cum primum plantatum est. 10
Homo vero cum mortuus fuerit, et nudatus,
atque consumptus, ubi, quæso, est? 11
Quomodo si recedant aquæ de mari,
et fluvius vacuefactus arescat: 12
sic homo, cum dormierit, non resurget:
donec atteratur cælum, non evigilabit,
nec consurget de somno suo. 13
Quis mihi hoc tribuat, ut in inferno protegas me,
et abscondas me donec pertranseat furor tuus,
et constituas mihi tempus in quo recorderis mei? 14
Putasne mortuus homo rursum vivat?
cunctis diebus quibus nunc milito, expecto
donec veniat immutatio mea. 15
Vocabis me, et ego respondebo tibi:
operi manuum tuarum porriges dexteram.

[1] In the Hebrew text, this verse reads simply, ‘Who can bring the clean from the unclean? Not one’; there is no agreement either as to the meaning of the phrase or as to its relevance in the discussion, and some think it has been accidentally misplaced.

[2] Cf. Gen. 8.1.

[3] The unfulfilled condition here expressed is represented in the Latin version as if it were something which is actually happen, but such a rendering is plainly out of harmony with the context.

[4] There has been much discussion over the meaning of these two verses, and over the position which they occupy in the argument. Some think they are part of the unfulfilled condition which goes before, and that the hiding away of man’s sin is represented as something desirable; others, that they express the actual condition of things, and that man’s sins are represented as treasured up against him, i.e., remaining unforgiven. Once again the suspicion arises that they really belong to a different context.

[5] The words ‘in life’ do not occur in the Hebrew text, and some think that the verse refers to the (entirely self-regarding) unhappiness of the soul after death.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd