Far from Stridonium, his semi-barbarous native place, whose austerity and vigor he never lost; far from Rome, where the study of literature and philosophy had not had sufficient ascendency to withhold him from the seductions of pleasure—the fear of God’s judgments had led him into the desert of Chalcia. There, under a burning sky, in the company of wild beasts, he for four years tormented his body with fearful macerations; and then, as a yet more efficacious remedy, and certainly a more meritorious mortification for one passionately fond of classical beauties, he sacrificed his ciceronian tastes to the study of the Hebrew language. Such an undertaking was far more laborious then than in our days of lexicons and grammars and scientific works of every description.
Malayong mula Stridonium, ang kanyang semi-walang kabihasnan katutubong lugar, na ang austerity at kalakasan siya ay hindi kailanman nawala; malayo mula sa Roma, kung saan ang pag-aaral ng panitikan at pilosopiya ay hindi nagkaroon ng sapat na pag-akyat na magbawas ng kanya mula sa seductions ng kasiyahan-ang takot sa hatol ng Diyos ay humantong sa kanya sa ilang ng Chalcia. Doon, sa ilalim ng isang nasusunog na kalangitan, sa kumpanya ng mababangis na hayop, siya ng apat na taon tormented kanyang katawan na may natatakot macerations; at pagkatapos, bilang pa mas mabisa lunas, at tiyak na isang mas karapadapat kahihiyan para sa isa passionately mahilig ng classical beauties, siya’y naghain ng kanyang mahusay magsalita kagustuhan sa pag-aaral ng wikang Hebreo. Tulad ng isang pamamahala sa libing ay malayo mas matrabaho pagkatapos kaysa sa aming mga araw ng lexicons at grammars at pang-agham gumagana ng bawat paglalarawan.