OLD TESTAMENT							NEW TESTAMENT
The 7 Books	Old Testament History		Wisdom Books	Major Prophets	Minor Prophets		NT History	Epistles of St. Paul		General Writings
Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuter. Joshua Judges	Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chron. 2 Chron.	Ezra Nehem. Tobit Judith Esther 1 Macc. 2 Macc.	Job Psalms Proverbs Eccles. Songs Wisdom Sirach	Isaiah Jeremiah Lament. Baruch Ezekiel Daniel	Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah	Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi	Matthew Mark Luke John Acts	Romans 1 Corinth. 2 Corinth. Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians	1 Thess. 2 Thess. 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews	James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation

Job 28

« 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 »

1 ἔστιν γὰρ ἀργυρίῳ τόπος ὅθεν γίνεται τόπος δὲ χρυσίῳ ὅθεν διηθεῖται 2 σίδηρος μὲν γὰρ ἐκ γῆς γίνεται χαλκὸς δὲ ἴσα λίθῳ λατομεῖται 3 τάξιν ἔθετο σκότει καὶ πᾶν πέρας αὐτὸς ἐξακριβάζεται λίθος σκοτία καὶ σκιὰ θανάτου 4 διακοπὴ χειμάρρου ἀπὸ κονίας οἱ δὲ ἐπιλανθανόμενοι ὁδὸν δικαίαν ἠσθένησαν ἐκ βροτῶν 5 γῆ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐξελεύσεται ἄρτος ὑποκάτω αὐτῆς ἐστράφη ὡσεὶ πῦρ 6 τόπος σαπφείρου οἱ λίθοι αὐτῆς καὶ χῶμα χρυσίον αὐτῷ 7 τρίβος οὐκ ἔγνω αὐτὴν πετεινόν καὶ οὐ παρέβλεψεν αὐτὴν ὀφθαλμὸς γυπός 8 οὐκ ἐπάτησαν αὐτὴν υἱοὶ ἀλαζόνων οὐ παρῆλθεν ἐ{P'} αὐτῆς λέων 9 ἐν ἀκροτόμῳ ἐξέτεινεν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ κατέστρεψεν δὲ ἐκ ῥιζῶν ὄρη 10 δίνας δὲ ποταμῶν ἔρρηξεν πᾶν δὲ ἔντιμον εἶδέν μου ὁ ὀφθαλμός 11 βάθη δὲ ποταμῶν ἀνεκάλυψεν ἔδειξεν δὲ ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν εἰς φῶς 12 ἡ δὲ σοφία πόθεν εὑρέθη ποῖος δὲ τόπος ἐστὶν τῆς ἐπιστήμης

1 Where, then, does wisdom lie?[1] Easy to trace where the veins of silver run, where gold-ore is refined, 2 where iron is dug from the depths of earth, and rocks must be melted to yield copper. 3 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! 4 Where yonder ravine cuts them off from the shepherd-folk, the miners toil, forgotten; lost to all track, far from the haunts of men.[2] 5 That earth, from whose surface our bread comes to us, must be probed by fire beneath, 6 till the rocks yield sapphires, and the clods gold. 7 Here are passages no bird discovers in its flight, no vulture’s eye has seen; 8 that never gave roving merchant[3] shelter, or the lioness a lair. 9 Boldly man matches himself against the flint, uproots the mountain, 10 cuts channels through the rock, where things of price have dazzled his eye; 11 narrowly he scans the river’s depths, and brings to light all they hide. 12 But wisdom, tell me where to search for wisdom; tell me in what cache discernment lies?

1

Habet argentum venarum suarum principia,
et auro locus est in quo conflatur. 2
Ferrum de terra tollitur,
et lapis solutus calore in æs vertitur. 3
Tempus posuit tenebris,
et universorum finem ipse considerat:
lapidem quoque caliginis et umbram mortis. 4
Dividit torrens a populo peregrinante
eos quos oblitus est pes egentis hominis, et invios. 5
Terra de qua oriebatur panis,
in loco suo igni subversa est. 6
Locus sapphiri lapides ejus,
et glebæ illius aurum. 7
Semitam ignoravit avis,
nec intuitus est eam oculus vulturis. 8
Non calcaverunt eam filii institorum,
nec pertransivit per eam leæna. 9
Ad silicem extendit manum suam:
subvertit a radicibus montes. 10
In petris rivos excidit,
et omne pretiosum vidit oculus ejus. 11
Profunda quoque fluviorum scrutatus est,
et abscondita in lucem produxit. 12
Sapientia vero ubi invenitur?
et quis est locus intelligentiæ?

13 οὐκ οἶδεν βροτὸς ὁδὸν αὐτῆς οὐδὲ μὴ εὑρεθῇ ἐν ἀνθρώποις 14 ἄβυσσος εἶπεν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἐμοί καὶ θάλασσα εἶπεν οὐκ ἔστιν με{T'} ἐμοῦ 15 οὐ δώσει συγκλεισμὸν ἀν{T'} αὐτῆς καὶ οὐ σταθήσεται ἀργύριον ἀντάλλαγμα αὐτῆς 16 καὶ οὐ συμβασταχθήσεται χρυσίῳ Ωφιρ ἐν ὄνυχι τιμίῳ καὶ σαπφείρῳ 17 οὐκ ἰσωθήσεται αὐτῇ χρυσίον καὶ ὕαλος καὶ τὸ ἄλλαγμα αὐτῆς σκεύη χρυσᾶ 18 μετέωρα καὶ γαβις οὐ μνησθήσεται καὶ ἕλκυσον σοφίαν ὑπὲρ τὰ ἐσώτατα 19 οὐκ ἰσωθήσεται αὐτῇ τοπάζιον Αἰθιοπίας χρυσίῳ καθαρῷ οὐ συμβασταχθήσεται

13 How should man set a price on it? This earth our pleasant home, yields no return of it; 14 Not here, cries the abyss beneath us, and the sea echoes, Not here. 15 Not for pure gold is it bartered, or weighed against silver in the balance; 16 not the bright wares of the Indies, nor jewel of sardonyx, nor sapphire can vie with it; 17 it is not to be matched with treasures of glass or gold, rivalled by all the goldsmith’s workmanship. 18 Do not talk of coral or of crystal;[4] for wisdom you must make deeper search still; 19 with wisdom the topaz from Ethiopia and the finest gold-leaf cannot compare.

13
Nescit homo pretium ejus,
nec invenitur in terra suaviter viventium. 14
Abyssus dicit: Non est in me,
et mare loquitur: Non est mecum. 15
Non dabitur aurum obrizum pro ea,
nec appendetur argentum in commutatione ejus. 16
Non conferetur tinctis Indiæ coloribus,
nec lapidi sardonycho pretiosissimo vel sapphiro. 17
Non adæquabitur ei aurum vel vitrum,
nec commutabuntur pro ea vasa auri. 18
Excelsa et eminentia non memorabuntur comparatione ejus:
trahitur autem sapientia de occultis. 19
Non adæquabitur ei topazius de Æthiopia,
nec tincturæ mundissimæ componetur.

20 ἡ δὲ σοφία πόθεν εὑρέθη ποῖος δὲ τόπος ἐστὶν τῆς συνέσεως 21 λέληθεν πάντα ἄνθρωπον καὶ ἀπὸ πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκρύβη 22 ἡ ἀπώλεια καὶ ὁ θάνατος εἶπαν ἀκηκόαμεν δὲ αὐτῆς τὸ κλέος 23 ὁ θεὸς εὖ συνέστησεν αὐτῆς τὴν ὁδόν αὐτὸς δὲ οἶδεν τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς 24 αὐτὸς γὰρ τὴν ὑ{P'} οὐρανὸν πᾶσαν ἐφορᾷ εἰδὼς τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ πάντα ἃ ἐποίησεν 25 ἀνέμων σταθμὸν ὕδατός τε μέτρα 26 ὅτε ἐποίησεν οὕτως ὑετὸν ἠρίθμησεν καὶ ὁδὸν ἐν τινάγματι φωνάς 27 τότε εἶδεν αὐτὴν καὶ ἐξηγήσατο αὐτήν ἑτοιμάσας ἐξιχνίασεν

20 Whence, then, does wisdom come to us; where is discernment to be found? 21 That is the secret kept hidden from beast on earth and bird in heaven; 22 the shadow-world of death claims no more than to have heard the rumour of it. 23 Only God knows the way to it, only God can tell where it lies, 24 he whose view reaches to the world’s end, sees all that passes under the wide heavens. 25 He, when first he took scale and measuring-line to set wind and water their task, 26 when he appointed a time for the rain’s abating, and a track for the whistling storm, 27 descried wisdom already; traced its plan, and set all in order, and mastered it.

20
Unde ergo sapientia venit?
et quis est locus intelligentiæ? 21
Abscondita est ab oculis omnium viventium:
volucres quoque cæli latet. 22
Perditio et mors dixerunt:
Auribus nostris audivimus famam ejus. 23
Deus intelligit viam ejus,
et ipse novit locum illius. 24
Ipse enim fines mundi intuetur,
et omnia quæ sub cælo sunt respicit. 25
Qui fecit ventis pondus,
et aquas appendit in mensura. 26
Quando ponebat pluviis legem,
et viam procellis sonantibus: 27
tunc vidit illam et enarravit,
et præparavit, et investigavit.

28 εἶπεν δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ ἰδοὺ ἡ θεοσέβειά ἐστιν σοφία τὸ δὲ ἀπέχεσθαι ἀπὸ κακῶν ἐστιν ἐπιστήμη

28 To man, he has told this much, that wisdom is fearing the Lord; there lies discernment, in refusing the evil path.

28
Et dixit homini: Ecce timor Domini, ipsa est sapientia;
et recedere a malo, intelligentia.

[1] These five words do not occur in the original; they are supplied here so as to explain the course of the argument; cf. verse 12.

[2] In the Hebrew text, this verse runs ‘The ravine divides (or, he divides the ravine) from the company of a foreign resident the forgotten ones from the foot they have languished from mankind they have wandered (or, tottered)’. The Latin version gives, ‘The torrent divides from the exiled people those whom the foot of the poor man has forgotten, those who are far from the beaten track’. The guess of modern scholars which would identify the ravine as a pit-shaft, and sees a reference to miners swinging to and fro in hanging cages, does justice neither to the usage of words nor to the requirements of the context. The text is probably corrupt, but we may presume that it refers to the remoteness and hiddenness of mining operations, not to contemporary conditions of labour.

[3] ‘Roving merchant’; the word is of doubtful meaning in the original, and perhaps refers to wild beasts.

[4] Literally, in the Latin version, ‘things high and things jutting out’. In the Hebrew text, the second half of the verse refers to a third kind of jewel, perhaps pearls.

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