Verse 2, like the opening verse in each of Eliphaz’s speeches, begins with a rhetorical question: Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge…? This is the equivalent of a strong negative statement: “A wise man should not answer with….” In 12.3 and 13.2 Job claimed that he was not inferior in wisdom to his friends. In 8.2 Bildad referred to Job’s words as being “a great wind.” Now Eliphaz picks up the same thought. It is clear from the next line that wise man refers to Job and not to Eliphaz. Answer refers to Job’s reply to his friends and means anything that Job may say. Windy knowledge translates “knowledge (characterized by) wind.” The sense of this expression is made clear only in the next line, and fill himself with the east wind. This line translates the Hebrew “and fill his belly with the east.” The reference to “the east” is to the scorching wind that blows from the east across the desert. In this sense Job is filling himself with “hot air,” which in English describes his knowledge in the first line. In English windy knowledge can be expressed by Eliphaz calling Job a “bag of hot air,” that is, someone whose talk has no substance.

Good News Translation renders both lines of verse 2 “Empty words, Job! Empty words!” This rendering departs considerably from the form of the Hebrew, and although it does give an effective rendering of the sense, it is too direct to serve as a translation model in many languages. Most modern translations stay closer to the Hebrew form and translate windy knowledge as knowledge that has no true substance; for example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “He who is wise does not reply with empty words, nor does he swell himself up with reasons that are mere wind.” Bible en français courant has “Does a wise man like you feed himself on wind, does he also make replies that have no substance?” If the rhetorical question form is retained, it will often be necessary to add a negative reply. This line may also be expressed as a negative statement; for example, “A wise man should not talk with meaningless words” or “A wise man like you, Job, should not make speeches with words that are like hot air.” Alternatively we can translate, for example, “Job, a wise man should not talk with words that have no meaning.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .