Job 8:2

“How long will you speak these things, ¹  seeing ²  that the words of your mouth are like a great ³  wind? ⁴ 

Ex 10:3,7; 1Ki 19:11; Job 6:9,26; Job 7:11; Job 11:2,3; Job 15:2; Job 16:3; Job 18:2; Job 19:2,3; Pr 1:22

¹ sn “These things” refers to all of Job’s speech, the general drift of which seems to Bildad to question the justice of God.

² 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.

³ 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.

⁴ 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).