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Monday, July 7th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Read the Bible

Literal Standard Version

Job 15:2

"Does a wise man answer [with] vain knowledge? And fill his belly [with] an east wind?

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,
Easy-to-Read Version
"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.
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

1And Eliphaz the Temanite answers and says: 2"Does a wise man answer [with] vain knowledge? And fill his belly [with] an east wind?3To reason with a word not useful? And speeches—no profit in them? 4Indeed, you make reverence void, and diminish meditation before God. 5For your mouth teaches your iniquity, || And you choose the tongue of the cunning. 6Your mouth declares you wicked, and not I, || And your lips testify against you. 7Are you the first man born? And were you formed before the heights? 8Do you hear of the secret counsel of God? And withdraw wisdom to you? 9What have you known, and we do not know? [What] do you understand, and it is not with us? 10Both the gray-headed || And the very aged [are] among us—Greater than your father [in] days.

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 these things the word of YHWH has been to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I [am] a shield to you, your reward [is] exceedingly great."
Genesis 15:2
And Abram says, "Lord YHWH, what do You give to me, and I am going childless? And an acquired son in my house is Demmesek Eliezer."
Genesis 15:3
And Abram says, "Behold, to me You have not given seed, and behold, a servant will be my heir."
Genesis 15:4
And behold, the word of YHWH [is] to him, saying, "This [one] will not be your heir; but he who comes out from your bowels, he will be your heir";
Genesis 15:6
And he has believed in YHWH, and He reckons it to him—righteousness.
Genesis 24:2
and Abraham says to his servant, the eldest of his house, who is ruling over all that he has, "Please put your hand under my thigh,
Genesis 24:10
And the servant takes ten camels of the camels of his lord and goes, also of all the goods of his lord in his hand, and he rises, and goes to Aram-Naharaim, to the city of Nahor;
Genesis 25:21
And Isaac makes plea to YHWH before his wife, for she [is] barren: and YHWH accepts his plea, and his wife Rebekah conceives,
Genesis 39:9
none is greater in this house than I, and he has not withheld from me anything, except you, because you [are] his wife; and how will I do this great evil? Then I have sinned against God."
Genesis 43:19
And they come near to the man who [is] over the house of Joseph, and speak to him at the opening of the 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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