Job 32:18-20

32:18 For I am full of words,

and the spirit within me ¹  constrains me. ² 

32:19 Inside I am like wine which has no outlet, ³ 

like new wineskins ⁴  ready to burst!

32:20 I will speak, ⁵  so that I may find relief;

I will open my lips, so that I may answer.

Jeremiah 6:11

6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, ⁶ 

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered, ⁷ 

“Vent it, then, ⁸  on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included, ⁹ 

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

Jeremiah 20:9

20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.

I will not speak as his messenger ¹⁰  any more.”

But then ¹¹  his message becomes like a fire

locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. ¹² 

I grow weary of trying to hold it in;

I cannot contain it.

Acts 4:20

4:20 for it is impossible ¹³  for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”

[32:18]  ¹ tn Heb “the spirit of my belly.”

[32:18]  ² tn The verb צוּק (tsuq) means “to constrain; to urge; to press.” It is used in Judg 14:17; 16:16 with the sense of wearing someone down with repeated entreaties. Elihu cannot withhold himself any longer.

[32:19]  ³ tn Heb “in my belly I am like wine that is not opened” (a Niphal imperfect), meaning sealed up with no place to escape.

[32:19]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text has כְּאֹבוֹת חֲדָשִׁים (kÿ’ovot khadashim), traditionally rendered “like new wineskins.” But only here does the phrase have this meaning. The LXX has “smiths” for “new,” thus “like smith’s bellows.” A. Guillaume connects the word with an Arabic word for a wide vessel for wine shaped like a cup (“Archaeological and philological note on Job 32:19,” PEQ 93 [1961]: 147-50). Some have been found in archaeological sites. The poor would use skins, the rich would use jars. The key to putting this together is the verb at the end of the line, יִבָּקֵעַ (yibbaqea’, “that are ready to burst”). The point of the statement is that Elihu is bursting to speak, and until now has not had the opening.

[32:20]  ⁵ tn The cohortative expresses Elihu’s resolve to speak.

[6:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the Lord.”

[6:11]  ⁷ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “Pour it out.”

[6:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “are to be captured.”

[20:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the Lord. Comparison, however, with the rest of the context, especially the consequential clause “then it becomes” (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah), and Jer 23:36 shows that it is “the word of the Lord.”

[20:9]  ¹¹ tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.

[20:9]  ¹² sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.

[4:20]  ¹³ tn Grk “for we are not able not to speak about what we have seen and heard,” but the double negative, which cancels out in English, is emphatic in Greek. The force is captured somewhat by the English translation “it is impossible for us not to speak…” although this is slightly awkward.