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 

"How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.

"How long will you say these things, And the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

"How long will you go on like this? Your words are a blustering wind.

"How can you keep on talking like this? You're talking nonsense, and noisy nonsense at that.

How long will you say these things, and how long will the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

"How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

"How long will you speak these things , And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

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

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).