Job 8:2
in Job 8“How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How long wilt thou speak these things? And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind?
KJV
How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
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This verse in Job 8
Commentary
10 notes on this verseHow long wilt thou speak these things? - Wilt thou still go on to charge God foolishly? Thy heavy affliction proves that thou art under his wrath; and his wrath, thus manifested, proves that it is for thy sins that he punisheth thee. Be like a strong wind? - The Arabic, with which the Syriac agrees, is (Syriac) rucholazomati, the spirit of pride. Wilt thou continue to breathe forth a tempest of words? This is more literal.
This site's exposition
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied
on Job 8:1-3
Bildad the Shuhite opens the book's second speech by calling Job's words "a blustering wind," noise without substance. His question, "Does God pervert justice," states true doctrine. The question expects the answer no, a fixed premise from which Bildad will argue that Job's guilt must follow.
This site's exposition
The words of your mouth are a blustering wind
Bildad asks how long the words of Job's mouth will go on like a blustering wind. Henry notes how often a rebuke rests on a misreading of the man rebuked. The Syriac, Barnes reports, reads pride.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
So Bildad the Shuhite reproached Job because he thought that the words that Job had said for the sake of truth and justice were, in fact, spoken out of arrogance and disdain.
Bildad says, "be unjust in his judgments, or will he who has created everything overturn what is just?" Observe what he means: justice accompanies the Creator. However, even though Bildad's words are not entirely applicable to Job, let us see what he means. Do you not perceive the profound justice that reigns in the creation and its profound order? And how everything is well regulated and settled? Therefore, could he who maintains justice and order among the senseless creatures overturn the rules in your case? Further, why did God create everything? Is it not because of you, the human being? And so he who has created so many things, did he not give you what was right to share? He who has created you out of love and has created so many things for you, if he has shown his benevolence toward the universe, this is also a proof of his power. We often overturn justice because of our powerlessness, but "he has created everything," he says. Will he, who is so wise, so just, so powerful, be unjust?
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.
proposed
How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the breath of the words of thy mouth be multiplied? When multiplicity is blamed in the speech, surely it is thereby denied that there is weight of meaning in the sense. For the power of speakers on the highest matters is distinguished by a fourfold quality.
In the discourse which Job just finished, he had responded to the speech of Eliphaz. He showed Eliphaz was mistaken in a deep and efficacious way. But Bildad of Shuah, who agreed with the same opinion of Eliphaz, did not understand the profundity of Blessed …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thus (as Caryl observes) reproofs are often grounded upon mistakes. Men's meaning is not taken aright, and then they are gravely rebuked as if they were evil-doers.
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
How long wilt thou speak these things?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
How long wilt thou speak these things? - The flyings of murmuring and complaint, such as he had uttered in the previous chapters. The words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? - The Syriac and Arabic (according to Walton) render this, “the spirit of pride fill thy mouth.” The Septuagint renders it, “The spirit of thy mouth is profuse of words” - πολυῤῥῆμον polurrēmon. But the common rendering is undoubtedly correct, and the expression is a very strong and beautiful one. His language of complaint and murmuring was like a tempest. It swept over all barriers, and disregarded all restraint. The same figure is found in Aristophanes, Ran. 872, as quoted by Schultens, Τυφὼς ἐχβαίειν παρασκενάξεται Tuphōs ekbainein paraskeuacetai - a tempest of words is preparing to burst forth. And in Silius Italicus, xxi. 581: - qui tanta superbo Facta sonas ore, et spumanti turbine perflas Ignorantum aures. The Chaldee renders it correctly רבא זעפא - a great tempest.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| אָ֥ן | ʾan | when? | H575 → | 41 times |
| תְּמַלֶּל־ | temalel- | will you say | H4448 → | |
| אֵ֑לֶּה | ʾeleh | these [things] | H428 → | 746 times |
| וְר֥וּחַ | veruach | and [will be] a wind | H7307 → | 378 times |
| כַּ֝בִּיר | kabir | mighty | H3524 → | 10 times |
| אִמְרֵי־ | ʾimrei- | [the] words of | H561 → | 49 times |
| פִֽיךָ׃ | fikha | mouth your | H6310 → | 498 times |
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
אָ֥ןwhen?
ʾanH575 →41 times
תְּמַלֶּל־will you say
temalel-H4448 →
אֵ֑לֶּהthese [things]
ʾelehH428 →746 times
וְר֥וּחַand [will be] a wind
veruachH7307 →378 times
כַּ֝בִּירmighty
kabirH3524 →10 times
אִמְרֵי־[the] words of
ʾimrei-H561 →49 times
פִֽיךָ׃mouth your
fikhaH6310 →498 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 7:11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
it leads to
- Job 10:1
“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 40:9
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.
- 1 Samuel 1:10
In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.
- Job 10:1
Through
1 Kings 19:11Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 1:4
I looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam…
- Psalms 50:3
Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.
- Isaiah 30:30
And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
- Job 38:1
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
- Hebrews 12:26
At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”
- Ezekiel 1:4
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:2; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:2A-3B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.