Ayub 6:26

6:26 Do you intend to criticize mere words,

and treat ¹  the words of a despairing man as wind?

Ayub 8:2

8:2 “How long will you speak these things, ² 

seeing ³  that the words of your mouth

are like a great ⁴  wind? ⁵ 

Ayub 11:2

11:2 “Should not this ⁶  abundance of words be answered, ⁷ 

or should this ⁸  talkative man ⁹ 

be vindicated? ¹⁰ 

Ayub 15:3

15:3 Does he argue ¹¹  with useless ¹²  talk,

with words that have no value in them?

Ayub 15:13

15:13 when you turn your rage ¹³  against God

and allow such words to escape ¹⁴  from your mouth?

Ayub 35:16

35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; ¹⁵ 

without knowledge he multiplies words.”

[6:26]  ¹ tn This, in the context, is probably the meaning, although the Hebrew simply has the line after the first half of the verse read: “and as/to wind the words of a despairing man.” The line could be translated “and the words of a despairing man, [which are] as wind.” But this translation follows the same approach as RSV, NIV, and NAB, which take the idiom of the verb (“think, imagine”) with the preposition on “wind” to mean “reckon as wind” – “and treat the words of a despairing man as wind.”

[8:2]  ² sn “These things” refers to all of Job’s speech, the general drift of which seems to Bildad to question the justice of God.

[8:2]  ³ tn The second colon of the verse simply says “and a strong wind the words of your mouth.” The simplest way to treat this is to make it an independent nominal sentence: “the words of your mouth are a strong wind.” Some have made it parallel to the first by apposition, understanding “how long” to do double duty. The line beginning with the ו (vav) can also be subordinated as a circumstantial clause, as here.

[8:2]  ⁴ tn The word כַּבִּיר (kabbir, “great”) implies both abundance and greatness. Here the word modifies “wind”; the point of the analogy is that Job’s words are full of sound but without solid content.

[8:2]  ⁵ tn See, however, G. R. Driver’s translation, “the breath of one who is mighty are the words of your mouth” (“Hebrew Studies,” JRAS 1948: 170).

[11:2]  ⁶ tc The LXX, Targum Job, Symmachus, and Vulgate all assume that the vocalization of רֹב (rov, “abundance”) should be רַב (rav, “great”): “great of words.” This would then mean “one who is abundant of words,” meaning, “a man of many words,” and make a closer parallel to the second half. But the MT makes good sense as it stands.

[11:2]  tn There is no article or demonstrative with the word; it has been added here simply to make a smoother connection between the chapters.

[11:2]  ⁷ tn The Niphal verb יֵעָנֶה (ye’aneh, “he answered”) would normally require a personal subject, but “abundance” functions as the subject in this sentence. The nuance of the imperfect is obligatory.

[11:2]  ⁸ tn The word is supplied here also for clarification.

[11:2]  ⁹ tn The bound construction “man of lips” means “a boaster” or “proud talker” (attributive genitive; and see GKC 417 §128.t). Zophar is saying that Job pours out this stream of words, but he is still not right.

[11:2]  ¹⁰ tn The word is literally “be right, righteous.” The idea of being right has appeared before for this word (cf. 9:15). The point here is that just because Job talks a lot does not mean he is right or will be shown to be right through it all.

[15:3]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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).

[15:13]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is a Hiphil perfect of yasa’, “to go out, proceed, issue forth.”

[35:16]  ¹⁵ tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel) means “vanity; futility; to no purpose.”