Job 15:2

2 "If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag, belching hot air?

Job 15:2 Meaning and Commentary

Job 15:2

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.

Job 15:2 In-Context

1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:
2 "If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag, belching hot air?
3 Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument, babbling baloney?
4 Look at you! You trivialize religion, turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
5 It's your sin that taught you to talk this way. You chose an education in fraud.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.