JEROME’S PREFACES. XIX

to the nations. This translation, however, follows no ancient interpreter; but from the Hebrew itself, and the Arabic tongue, and sometimes the Syriac, it will echo now the words, now the sense, and now both at once. For among the Hebrews, the entire book is considered indirect and slippery—what the Greek rhetoricians call fashioned original: ἐσχηματισμένος (eschēmatismenos), meaning a text with a hidden or figurative meaning—where one thing is said, but another is meant. It is as if you were trying to hold an eel or a small lamprey with clenched hands: the harder you squeeze, the faster it slips away. I remember that to understand this volume, I paid no small sum to a certain teacher from Lydda A city in Roman Palestine, known as a center of Jewish scholarship who was considered a leader among the Hebrews. Whether I profited anything from his teaching, I do not know; I know only this one thing: I could not translate what I did not first understand. From the beginning of the volume, then, until the words of Job, the text is prose among the Hebrews. Furthermore, from the words in which he says: Let the day perish in which I was born, and soon after, the day in which it was said, A man is conceived Job 3:3, up to that place where, before Job 42. the end of the volume, it is written: Therefore I reprove myself, and do penance in dust and ashes, the verses run in dactyls and spondees Dactyls and spondees are rhythmic "feet" used in classical poetry, like the heartbeat of a line. Because of the specific idiom of the language, they frequently admit other feet as well—not of the same syllables, but of the same musical timing. Sometimes the rhythm itself is carried along in sweet and tinkling measures, free from strict poetic feet, a thing which scholars of meter understand better than the simple reader. However, from the aforementioned verse to the end of the book, the small section that remains is composed in prose. If it seems incredible to anyone that the Hebrews have meters—that their Psalter, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, or almost all the scriptural songs are composed in the manner of our Horace, or the Greek Pindar, Alcaeus, and Sappho—let him read Philo, Josephus, Origen, and Eusebius of Caesarea, and he will find by their testimony that I speak the truth. Therefore, let my "dogs" Jerome frequently referred to his critics as barking dogs hear this: I have labored on this volume not to reproach the ancient translation, but so that those things which are obscure, omitted, or corrupted by the fault of scribes in that version might become clearer through our translation. For we have learned the Hebrew tongue in part, and in Latin we have been worn down from our very cradles among grammarians, rhetoricians, and philosophers. If among the Greeks—even after the Seventy translators and while the Gospel of Christ was already shining—the Jew Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion (Judaizing heretics) were accepted, men who hid many mysteries of the Savior through deceitful translation; and yet these versions stand extant? in the churches and are explained by churchmen; how much more should I—a Christian, born of Christian parents, carrying the banner of the Cross on my forehead, whose zeal has been to restore what was omitted, correct what was corrupted, and open the sacraments of the Church in pure and faithful speech—not be rejected by either fastidious or malicious readers? Let those who want them keep their old books, written either on purple parchment in gold and silver ink, or in uncial letters large, rounded capital letters used in ancient manuscripts—which are more like heavy burdens than books—provided they allow me and mine to have our poor scraps of paper, and manuscripts that are not so much beautiful as they are accurate. Both editions, the Seventy according to the Greeks and mine according to the Hebrews, have been

translated into Latin by my labor. Let each man choose what he wishes, and prove me to be studious rather than malevolent.

If I were weaving baskets of rushes, or folding palm leaves so that I might eat my bread by the sweat of my brow and occupy my mind with the work of the belly, no one would bite at me, and no one would reproach me. But now, because according to the sentence of the Savior I wish to labor for the food that does not perish, and to clear the ancient path of the divine volumes of briers and thickets, a double error is inflicted upon me: I am called a "corrector of vices" and a "falsifier," and am told I do not remove errors but sow them. For so great is the power of custom and antiquity that even vices, confessed by many, are pleasing to them; for they prefer to have beautiful manuscripts rather than accurate ones. Therefore, O most beloved brothers—you who are a unique example of both nobility and humility—receive these spiritual and lasting gifts in place of the fans, baskets, and little gifts of monks. Rejoice that blessed Job, who until now lay in the dung heap among the Latins and swarmed with the worms of errors, is now whole and immaculate. For just as after his trial and victory everything was restored to him twofold, so I have made him have in our language (if I may speak boldly) those things which he had lost. Therefore, I warn you and every reader with the usual preface, attaching the same things to the beginnings of these books: I ask that wherever you see the preceding little bars obeli, you know that the things following them are not found in the Hebrew volumes. Furthermore, where the image of a star asterisk shines, those things have been added from the Hebrew into our language. Even those parts which seemed to be there but were so corrupt that they robbed the sense from readers, I have corrected with great labor through your prayers, thinking that something more useful would come to the Churches of Christ from my leisure than from the business of others.

While I was living in Rome, I had corrected the Psalter; and according to the Seventy interpreters, though hurriedly, I had corrected it for the most part. Since you see, O Paula and Eustochium, that it has been corrupted again by the fault of scribes, and that ancient error has more power than new correction, you compel me to work the already furrowed field like a new fallow land, and to root out the thorns that are regrowing with slanted furrows. You say it is only fair that what frequently sprouts poorly should be more frequently cut down. Whence I warn you with the customary preface—both you, for whom this labor perhaps sweats, and those who wish to have copies of this sort—that what I have diligently corrected should be transcribed with care and diligence. Let everyone note for themselves either the lying line or the radiating signs—that is, either the obeli or the asterisks. And wherever he sees a preceding little bar, from that point to the two dots which we have imprinted, let him know that more is contained in the Seventy. But where he sees the likeness of a star, let him know it has been added from the Hebrew volumes up to the two dots, following at least the edition of Theodotion, who in the simplicity of his speech from the Seventy...