How you have counseled him who has no wisdom: counseled is the same term used in 12.13b, in which God “has counsel and understanding.” As a verb it means “advise, give advice.” Him who has no wisdom is literally “the one not wise” and therefore “ignorant, uninformed.” Good News Translation says “fool,” and New Jerusalem Bible “the unlearned.” The line may be translated “You have done so well giving advice to this simple-minded person” or “Just look how well you have informed this ignorant man.”

And plentifully declared sound knowledge is a literal translation of the Hebrew. Job is being doubly sarcastic in saying that Bildad’s very brief remarks in 25.1-6 were plentifully declared. The word translated declared means “show, make known, demonstrate.” Sound knowledge is a single word in Hebrew. It is used in 5.12 in the sense of planning ahead (“success”), and so “having foresight in making plans.” It is often used in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament for the wisdom possessed by both people and God. New English Bible translates it “sound advice.” If the translator is retaining the parallelism, this line may be translated, for example, “and shown me great amounts of wisdom!” “and helped me greatly to plan ahead well!” or “and you have shown me so much clear understanding!”

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 .