Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, June 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 6 / Ordinary 11
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Job 15:2

"If you were really wise, you would not answer with your worthless personal opinions! A wise man would not be so full of hot air.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Belly;   Pride;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Eliphaz;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Winds;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Belly;   East wind;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Belly;   Vain;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Does a wise man answer with empty counselor fill himself with the hot east wind?
Hebrew Names Version
"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
King James Version
Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
English Standard Version
"Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
New Century Version
"A wise person would not answer with empty words or fill his stomach with the hot east wind.
New English Translation
"Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, or fill his belly with the east wind?
Amplified Bible
"Should a wise man [such as you] utter such windy and vain knowledge [as we have just heard] And fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]?
New American Standard Bible
"Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
World English Bible
"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Shal a wise man speake words of ye winde, and fill his bellie with the East winde?
Legacy Standard Bible
"Should a wise man answer with windy knowledgeAnd fill his belly with the east wind?
Berean Standard Bible
"Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
Contemporary English Version
Job, if you had any sense,
Complete Jewish Bible
"Should a wise man answer with hot-air arguments? Should he fill up his belly with the hot east wind?
Darby Translation
Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,
George Lamsa Translation
Should a spiritually minded man answer with knowledge and then become enraged?
Lexham English Bible
"Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and should he fill his stomach with the east wind?
Literal Translation
Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Shulde a wyse man geue soch an answere (as it were one that spake in the wynde) and fyll his stomacke with anger?
American Standard Version
Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
Bible in Basic English
Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Should a wise man make answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
King James Version (1611)
Should a wise man vtter vaine knowledge, and fill his belly with the East winde?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Shall a wyse mans aunswere be as the winde, and fill a mans belly as it were with the winde of the east?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Will a wise man give for answer a mere breath of wisdom? and does he fill up the pain of his belly,
English Revised Version
Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether a wise man schal answere, as spekynge ayens the wynd, and schal fille his stomac with brennyng, `that is, ire?
Update Bible Version
Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
Webster's Bible Translation
Should a wise men utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
New King James Version
"Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
New Living Translation
"A wise man wouldn't answer with such empty talk! You are nothing but a windbag.
New Life Bible
"Should a wise man answer with learning that is of no worth, and fill himself with the east wind?
New Revised Standard
"Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Should, a wise man, answer unreal knowledge? or fill, with the east wind, his inner man?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Will a wise man answer as if he were speaking in the wind, and fill his stomach with burning heat?
Revised Standard Version
"Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
Young's Literal Translation
Doth a wise man answer [with] vain knowledge? And fill [with] an east wind his belly?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge And fill himself with the east wind?

Contextual Overview

1 Then Eliphaz from Teman answered Job: 2 "If you were really wise, you would not answer with your worthless personal opinions! A wise man would not be so full of hot air. 3 Do you think a wise man would use empty words and meaningless speeches to win his arguments? 4 If you had your way, no one would respect God and pray to him. 5 What you say clearly shows your sin. Job, you are trying to hide your sin by using clever words. 6 I don't need to prove to you that you are wrong. The words from your own mouth show that you are wrong. Your own lips speak against you. 7 "Do you think you were the first person ever to be born? Were you born before the hills? 8 Did you listen to God's secret plans? Do you think you are the only wise person? 9 We know as much as you do! We understand as well as you. 10 The old, gray-haired men agree with us. People older than your father are on our side.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a wise man: Job 11:2, Job 11:3, Job 13:2, James 3:13

vain knowledge: Heb. knowledge of wind, Job 6:26, Job 8:2

fill: Hosea 12:1

Reciprocal: Job 12:2 - ye are the people Job 16:3 - vain words Job 24:25 - who will make Job 33:3 - my lips Job 34:35 - General Isaiah 44:20 - feedeth

Cross-References

Genesis 15:1
After all these things happened, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. God said, "Abram, don't be afraid. I will defend you and give you a great reward."
Genesis 15:2
But Abram said, "Lord God , there is nothing you can give me that will make me happy, because I have no son. My slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die."
Genesis 15:3
Abram said, "You have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will get everything I have."
Genesis 15:4
Then the Lord spoke to Abram and said, "That slave will not be the one to get what you have. You will have a son who will get everything you own."
Genesis 15:6
Abram believed the Lord , and because of this faith the Lord accepted him as one who has done what is right.
Genesis 24:2
Abraham's oldest servant was in charge of everything he owned. Abraham called that servant to him and said, "Put your hand under my leg.
Genesis 24:10
The servant took ten of Abraham's camels and left that place. The servant carried with him many different kinds of beautiful gifts. He went to Mesopotamia, to Nahor's city.
Genesis 25:21
Isaac's wife could not have children. So Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. The Lord heard Isaac's prayer, and he allowed Rebekah to become pregnant.
Genesis 39:9
My master has made me almost equal to him in his house. I cannot sleep with his wife! That is wrong! It is a sin against God."
Genesis 43:19
So the brothers went to the servant in charge of Joseph's house.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge,.... As Job had been thought to be, or as he himself thought he was, which he might say sarcastically; or as he really was, not worldly wise, nor merely wise in things natural, but in things divine; being one that had the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom itself; believed in Christ, and walked wisely and circumspectly before men; now it is not becoming such a man to utter vain knowledge, or such knowledge as is like the wind, or, as the Targum, windy knowledge; empty, not solid, nor satisfying, but swells and puffs up, and is knowledge falsely so called; but it does not appear that Job did utter such vain and fruitless things as deserved to be compared to the wind:

and fill his belly with the east wind; which is noisy and blusterous, rapid and forcible, bearing all before it, and very infectious in hot countries; and such notions Job, according to Eliphaz, satisfied himself with, and endeavoured to insinuate them into others; which were nothing but great swelling words of vanity, and tended to subvert the faith of men, and overthrow all religion, and were very unwholesome, infectious, and ruinous to the minds of men, as suggested.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Should a wise man - Referring to Job, and to his claims to be esteemed wise; see Job 12:3; Job 13:2, Job 13:6. The argument of Eliphaz here is, that the sentiments which Job had advanced were a sufficient refutation of his pretensions to wisdom. A wise man would not be guilty of “mere talk,” or of using language that conveyed no ideas.

Utter - literally, answer. It refers to the replies which Job had made to the arguments of his friends.

Vain knowledge - Margin, “Knowledge of wind.” So the Hebrew; see Job 6:26; Job 7:7. The “wind” is used to denote what is unsubstantial, vain, changing. Here it is used as an emblem of remarks which were vain, empty, and irrelevant.

And fill his belly - Fill his mind with unsubstantial arguments or sentiments - as little fitted for utility as the east wind is for food. The image is, “he fills himself with mere wind, and then blows it out under pretence of delivering the maxims of wisdom.”

With the east wind - The east wind was not only tempestuous and vehement, but sultry, and destructive to vegetation. It passed over vast deserts, and was characterized by great dryness and heat. It is used here to denote a manner of discourse that had in it nothing profitable.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 15:2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledge — Or rather, Should a wise man utter the science of wind? A science without solidity or certainty.

And fill his belly with the east wind? — בטן beten, which we translate belly, is used to signify any part of the cavity of the body, whether the region of the thorax or abdomen; here it evidently refers to the lungs, and may include the cheeks and fauces. The east wind, קדים kadim, is a very stormy wind in the Levant, or the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, supposed to be the same with that called by the Greeks ευροκλυδων, euroclydon, the east storm, mentioned Acts 27:14. Eliphaz, by these words, seems to intimate that Job's speech was a perfect storm or tempest of words.


 
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