James Duport, Job, 3.23

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[23] Why is light, and life, given to the ill-fated man, who under grief wanders hither and thither, and does not see where he might go, because God has shut him in with a dark, unseen cloud?

Job. James Duport. . .

Current edition Experimental

English (DeepSeek, 2026) (OCR draft) (English) (Machine-assisted English translation of James Duport's Homeric Greek verse paraphrase of Job.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (2)

Ἰώβ First1KGreek (Septuaginta. The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint. Volume 2: I Chronicles-Tobit. Swete, Henry Barclay, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896.) — 3 focus

Μετὰ τοῦτο ἤνοιξεν Ἰὼβ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ

καὶ κατηράσατο τὴν ἡμέραν αὐτοῦ

λέγων

Ἀπόλοιτο ἡ ἡμέρα ἐν ἧ ἐγεννήθην,

¹²

καὶ ἡ νὺξ ἐκείνη ᾗ εἶπαν Ἰδοὺ ἄρσεν.

ἡ νὺξ ἐκείνη εἴη σκότος,

καὶ μὴ ἀναζητήσαι αὐτὴν ὁ κύριος ἄνωθεν,

μηδὲ ἔλθοι εἰς αὐτὴν φέγγος·

ἐκλάβοι δέ αὐτὴν σκότος καὶ σκιὰ θανάτου,

ἐπέλθοι ἐπʼ αὐτὴν γνόφος.

καταραθείη ἡ ἡμέρα ⁶καὶ ἡ νὺξ ἐκείνη,

ἀπενέγκαιτο αὐτὴν σκότος·

μὴ εἴη εἰς ἡμέρας ἐνιαυτοῦ,

μηδέ ἀριθμηθείη εἰς ἡμέρας μηνῶν.

ἀλλὰ ἡ νὺξ ἐκείνη εἴη) ὀδύνη,

καὶ μὴ ἔλθοι ἐπʼ αὐτὴν εὐφροσύνη μηδέ χαρμονή·

ἀλλὰ καταράσαιτο αὐτὴν ὁ καταρώμενος τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην,

ὁ μέλλων τὸ μέγα κῆτος χειρώσασθαι

σκοτωθείη τὰ ἄστρα τῆς νυκτὸς ἐκείνης·

ὑπομείναι, καὶ εἰς φωτισμὸν μὴ ἔλθοι,

καὶ μὴ ἴδοι ἑωσφόρον ἀνατέλλοντα.

ὅτι οὐ συνέκλεισεν πύλας γαστρὸς μητρός μου·

ἀπήλλαξεν γὰρ ἂν πόνον ἀπὸ ὀφθαλμῶν μου.

δμὰ τί γὰρ ἐν κοιλίᾳ οὐκ ἐτελεύτησας

ἐκ γαστρὸς δὲ ἐξῆλθον καὶ οὐκ εὐθὺς ἀπωλόρην

ἵνα τί δὲ συνήντησάν μοι τὰ γόνατα

ἵνα τί δὲ μαστοὺς ἐθήλασα

νῦν ἂν κοιμηθεὶς ἡσύχασα,

ὑπνώσας δὲ ἀνεπαυσάμην

μετὰ βασιλέων βουλευτῶν γῆς.

οἳ ἠγαυριῶντο ἐπὶ ξίφεσιν,

ἢ μετὰ ἀρχόντων, ὧν πολὺς ὁ χρυσός,

οἳ ἔπλησαν τοὺς οἴκους αὐτῶν ἀργυρίου,

ἢ ὣσπερ ἔκτρωμα ἐκπορευόμενον ἐκ μήτρας μητρός.

³⁵

ἢ ὥσπερ νήπιοι οἱ οὐκ εἶδον φῶς.

ἐκεῖ ἀσεβεῖς ἐξέκαυσαν θυμὸν ὀργῆς.

ἐκεῖ ἀνεπαύσαντο κατάκοποι τῷ σώματι·

ὁμοθυμαδὸν δὲ οἱ αἰώνιοι

οὐκ ἤκουσαν φωνὴν φορολόγου.

μικρὸς καὶ μέγας ἐκεῖ ἐστιν,

καὶ θεράπων δεδοικὼς τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ.

ἵνα τί γὰρ δέδοται τοῖς ἐν πικρίᾳ φῶς,

ζωὴ δὲ ταῖς ἐν ὀδύναις ψυχαῖς ;

οἳ ὀμείρονται τοῦ θανάτου καὶ οὐ τυγχάνουσιν,

ἀνορύσσοντες ὥσπερ θησαυρούς·

περιχαρεῖς δέ ἐγένοντο ἐὰν κατατύχωσιν.

θάνατος ἀνδρὶ ἀνάπαυμα,

συνέκλεισεν γὰρ ὁ θεὸς κατʼ αὐτοῦ.

πρὸ γὰρ τῶν σίταων μου στεναγμὸς ἤκει,

δακρύω δὲ ἐγὼ συνεχόμενος φόβῳ.

φόβος γὰρ ὃν ἐφρόντισα ἦλθέν μοι,

καὶ ὃν ἐδεδοίκειν, συνήντησέν μοι.

οὔτε εἰρήνευσα οὔτε ἡσύχασα οὔτε ἀνεπαυσάμην,

ἦλθεν δέ μοι ὀργή.

Homeric Greek (James Duport, 1676) (OCR draft) Experimental (James Duport, Threnothriambos: a Homeric Greek verse paraphrase of Job (1676).) — 3.23.1 focus

Τίπτε φάος, ζωή τε δυσαμμόρῳ, ὅς θ' ὑπ' ἀνίης

Πλάζεται ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα, καὶ οὐκ ἴδεν, ὅπποθι βαίνοι,

Οὕνεκά μιν τ' ἀϊδνῇ νεφέλῃ θεὸς εἶρξε μελαίνῃ.

Translations (2)

Job Perseus (World English Bible. Revision of the American Standard Version of 1901. Rainbow Missions, Inc., 2000-2024.) — 3 focus

After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

Job answered:

Let the day perish in which I was born, The night which said, there is a man-child conceived.

Let that day be darkness; Don’t let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.

As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it who curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

Let the stars of the twilight of it be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, Neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

Because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, Nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?

For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;

Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling; There the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

Why is light given to him who is in misery, Life to the bitter in soul,

Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; Dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

Who rejoice exceedingly, Are glad, when they can find the grave?

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, Whom God has hedged in?

For my sighing comes before I eat, My groanings are poured out like water.

For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble comes.

Latin (James Duport, 1676) (OCR draft) Experimental (Duport's facing Latin translation of his Homeric Greek verse paraphrase of Job (1676).) — 3.23.1 focus

Ut quid lux vitá q; que miſero, qui ærumnâ

Jactatur hùc illùc, & non videt quò vadat,

Quoniam eum calamitatis nube Deus circumſepſit atrâ.

James Duport Job 3.23

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