Ayub 15:2-3

15:2 “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, ¹ 

or fill his belly ²  with the east wind? ³ 

15:3 Does he argue ⁴  with useless ⁵  talk,

with words that have no value in them?

Ayub 15:7-9

15:7 “Were you the first man ever born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

15:8 Do you listen in on God’s secret council? ⁶ 

Do you limit ⁷  wisdom to yourself?

15:9 What do you know that we don’t know?

What do you understand that we don’t understand? ⁸ 

Ayub 15:11-14

15:11 Are God’s consolations ⁹  too trivial for you; ¹⁰ 

or a word spoken ¹¹  in gentleness to you?

15:12 Why ¹²  has your heart carried you away, ¹³ 

and why do your eyes flash, ¹⁴ 

15:13 when you turn your rage ¹⁵  against God

and allow such words to escape ¹⁶  from your mouth?

15:14 What is man that he should be pure,

or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

[15:2]  ¹ tn The Hebrew is דַעַת־רוּחַ (da’at-ruakh). This means knowledge without any content, vain knowledge.

[15:2]  ² tn The image is rather graphic. It is saying that he puffs himself up with the wind and then brings out of his mouth blasts of this wind.

[15:2]  ³ tn The word for “east wind,” קָדִים (qadim), is parallel to “spirit/wind” also in Hos 12:2. The east wind is maleficent, but here in the parallelism it is so much hot air.

[15:3]  ⁴ tn The infinitive absolute in this place is functioning either as an explanatory adverb or as a finite verb.

[15:3]  sn Eliphaz draws on Job’s claim with this word (cf. Job 13:3), but will declare it hollow.

[15:3]  ⁵ tn The verb סָכַן (sakhan) means “to be useful, profitable.” It is found 5 times in the book with this meaning. The Hiphil of יָעַל (ya’al) has the same connotation. E. LipinÃski offers a new meaning on a second root, “incur danger” or “run risks” with words, but this does not fit the parallelism (FO 21 [1980]: 65-82).

[15:8]  ⁶ tn The meaning of סוֹד (sod) is “confidence.” In the context the implication is “secret counsel” of the Lord God (see Jer 23:18). It is a question of confidence on the part of God, that only wisdom can know (see Prov 8:30,31). Job seemed to them to claim to have access to the mind of God.

[15:8]  ⁷ tn In v. 4 the word meant “limit”; here it has a slightly different sense, namely, “to reserve for oneself.”

[15:9]  ⁸ tn The last clause simply has “and it is not with us.” It means that one possesses something through knowledge. Note the parallelism of “know” and “with me” in Ps 50:11.

[15:11]  ⁹ sn The word תַּנְחֻמוֹת (tankhumot) occurs here and only in Job 21:34. The words of comfort and consolation that they have been offering to Job are here said to be “of God.” But Job will call them miserable comforters (16:2).

[15:11]  ¹⁰ tn The formula “is it too little for you” or “is it too slight a matter for you” is also found in Isa 7:13 (see GKC 430 §133.c).

[15:11]  ¹¹ tn The word “spoken” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[15:12]  ¹² tn The interrogative מָה (mah) here has the sense of “why?” (see Job 7:21).

[15:12]  ¹³ tn The verb simply means “to take.” The RSV has “carry you away.” E. Dhorme (Job, 212-13) goes further, saying that it implies being unhinged by passion, to be carried away by the passions beyond good sense (pp. 212-13). Pope and Tur-Sinai suggest that the suffix on the verb is datival, and translate it, “What has taken from you your mind?” But the parallelism shows that “your heart” and “your eyes” are subjects.

[15:12]  ¹⁴ tn Here is another word that occurs only here, and in the absence of a completely convincing suggestion, probably should be left as it is. The verb is רָזַם (razam, “wink, flash”). Targum Job and the Syriac equate it with a verb found in Aramaic and postbiblical Hebrew with the same letters but metathesized – רָמַז (ramaz). It would mean “to make a sign” or “to wink.” Budde, following the LXX probably, has “Why are your eyes lofty?” Others follow an Arabic root meaning “become weak.”

[15:13]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew is רוּחֶךָ (rukhekha, “your spirit” or “your breath”). But the fact that this is turned “against God,” means that it must be given a derived meaning, or a meaning that is metonymical. It is used in the Bible in the sense of anger – what the spirit vents (see Judg 8:3; Prov 16:32; and Job 4:9 with “blast”).

[15:13]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is a Hiphil perfect of yasa’, “to go out, proceed, issue forth.”