Job 15:2

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

or fill his belly ²  with the east wind? ³ 

Job 16:3

16:3 Will ⁴  there be an end to your ⁵  windy words? ⁶ 

Or what provokes ⁷  you that you answer? ⁸ 

Job 21:18

21:18 How often ⁹  are they like straw before the wind,

and like chaff swept away ¹⁰  by a whirlwind?

Job 32:8

32:8 But it is a spirit in people,

the breath ¹¹  of the Almighty,

that makes them understand.

[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.

[16:3]  ⁴ tn Disjunctive questions are introduced with the sign of the interrogative; the second part is introduced with אוֹ (’o, see GKC 475 §150.g).

[16:3]  ⁵ tn In v. 3 the second person singular is employed rather than the plural as in vv. 2 and 4. The singular might be an indication that the words of v. 3 were directed at Eliphaz specifically.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “words of wind.”

[16:3]  ⁷ tn The Hiphil of מָרַץ (marats) does not occur anywhere else. The word means “to compel; to force” (see 6:25).

[16:3]  ⁸ tn The LXX seems to have gone a different way: “What, is there any reason in vain words, or what will hinder you from answering?”

[21:18]  ⁷ tn To retain the sense that the wicked do not suffer as others, this verse must either be taken as a question or a continuation of the question in v. 17.

[21:18]  ⁸ tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.

[32:8]  ¹⁰ tn This is the word נְשָׁמָה (nÿshamah, “breath”); according to Gen 2:7 it was breathed into Adam to make him a living person (“soul”). With that divine impartation came this spiritual understanding. Some commentators identify the רוּחַ (ruakh) in the first line as the Spirit of God; this “breath” would then be the human spirit. Whether Elihu knew that much, however, is hard to prove.