English

Once more Jehovah from that radiant throne
Of clouds thus spake: " O Job, thy arms put on;
If thou hast will or courage left, prepare
T' encounter Me in this gigantic war.
Wilt thou My judgments disannul, defame
My equal rule, to clear thyself of blame?
Is thy weak arm as strong as God's? Canst thou
In thunder speak, the sea with tempests plough?
Come, deck thyself with beauty's excellence;
With majesty, and sun-like rays dispense;
The fury of thy wrath like lightning fling
On bold offenders; pride to ruin bring.

Wilt thou for the old lion hunt, or fill
His hungry whelps, and for the killer kill?
When couch'd in dreadful dens, when closely they
Lurk in the covert to surprise their prey?
Who feeds the ravens when their young ones cry
To God for food, and through the deserts fly?
Know'st thou when savage goats do teem among
The craggy rocks? when hinds produce their young?
Canst thou their reck'nings keep, the time compute
When their swoll'n bellies shall enlarge their fruit?
Without a midwife these their throes sustain,

Then from a globe of curling clouds, which brake
Into a radiant flame, Jehovah spake:
" What mortal thus through ignorance profanes
My darken'd counsels? of his God complains?
Come, buckle on thy armour; let us end
This controverse, since thou wilt needs contend.
Tell, if thou canst, where wert thou when I made
The foodful earth, and her foundation laid?
Who those exact dimensions did design,
Who on her superficies stretch'd his line?
Or fix'd as centre to the world? upon
What basis built? who laid the corner-stone?

O HOW they terrify my panting heart!
Ready to break my fivers, and depart.
Hark, how His thunder from their entrails breaks!
The voice of God when He in fury speaks,
Which rolls in globes of pitch below the skies,
To earth's extent His winged lightning flies,
Pursu'd by hideous fragors; though before
The flames descend, they in their breaches roar.
His far-resonnding voice reports His ire,
His indignation flows in streams of fire.
O who can apprehend His excellence,
Whose wonders pass the reach of human sense!

A LITTLE longer suffer me, while I
Proceed in this Divine Apology,
And from a far remov'd Original
His judgments vindicate Who made us all.
No fucus, nor vain supplement of art,
Shall falsify the language of my heart.
He Who is perfect, and abhors untruth,
With heav'nly influence inspires my youth.
For the Omnipotent is only wise:
Nor will the Great in Pow'r the weak despise,
His hands the poor from violence defend,
While sin-defiled souls to hell descend;
Beholds the just, with eyes that ever wake,

These arguments thus urg'd, the zealous youth
Proceeds, and said: " Art thou inform'd by truth,
That dar'st prefer thine own integrity,
As if more just than He Who sits on high?
And say: " O I am innocent in vain,
Have to no end preserv'd my life from stain."
Now give me leave to answer thee and those
Who God's all-guiding Providence oppose.
O, Job from heav'n to earth erect thine eyes
Behold the vast extension of the skies,
The sailing clouds by exhalations fed,
How far are these advanc'd above thy head?

Then Elihu his speech directs to those
Who in a ring the disputants enclose.
" You that are wise, " said he, " my doctrine hear,
You who have knowing souls afford an ear,
For sense is by that organ understood,
Ev'n as the taste distinguisheth of food.
By equity let us our judgments guide,
And this long controverted cause decide. "
Job cries: " I guiltless fall, to God appeal;
Yet will not He the clouded truth reveal.
Shall I with lies betray my innocence?
My wound is mortal, O, for what offence!"

And now, O Job, what I shall utter, hear;
As I my lips, so open thou thine ear.
I sacred knowledge clearly will impart,
Drawn from the fountain of a single heart.
God made us both, with breath of life inspir'd,
In shrouds of frail mortality attir'd.
Then since we shall with equal arms contend,
Arise, and if thou canst, thy cause defend.
Behold, according to thy wish I stand
Instead of God, though made of slime and sand.
I will not with stern menaces affright,
Nor shall my hand on thee like thunder light.

Nor would his friends proceed in their replies,
Since he appear'd so pure in his own eyes.
When Elihu, Barachel's son, who drew
His birth from Aram, much incensed grew,
Not only against Job, that durst defend
His innocency, and with God contend,
But with his three austere companions, since
They would condemn before they could convince.
When he perceiv'd the rest no answer made,
But like dumb statues sat, the Buzite said:
" Till now I durst not venture to unfold
My labouring thoughts to you that are so old.

" I WITH my eyes a cov'nant made, that they
Should not my soul, nor she their lights betray
To the deceit of sin; why then should I
Behold a virgin with a burning eye?
What judgments are reserv'd, what vengeance due
To those, who their intemp'rate lusts pursue!
Destruction and eternal ruin shall,
From heav'n, like lightning, on the wicked fall.
Do not His searching eyes my ways behold,
Are not my steps by Him observ'd and told?
If tempting sin could ever yet entice
My feet to wander in the quest of vice,