Behold, my heart is like wine that has no vent: heart translates the Hebrew for “belly,” as in the previous verse. The wine here is said to have no vent. Wine that is fermenting releases gas. If there is no escape for the gas, the pressure will build up and burst the container. Elihu is suggesting that his insides are like this, not from wine but from unexpressed words.

In the second line Elihu uses the simile like new wineskins. If the Hebrew word used here means wineskins, this is the only place in the Old Testament where it has that meaning. The sense of wineskins is based mainly on the word for wine in the first line. New English Bible follows the Septuagint in changing the word translated new in this line to read “blacksmith’s bellows,” and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project supports this with a “C” rating, a rare decision on the part of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. However, all modern translations consulted are close to Revised Standard Version, which is the form recommended here. The comparison is between Elihu’s urge to speak and the pressure of the bursting wineskin, and Good News Translation brings this out clearly by saying “If I don’t get a chance to speak, I will burst like a wineskin full of new wine.” Good News Translation suggests that the wine is fermenting, by the expression “new wine.” In languages in which wineskins are unknown, translators may be able to use a substitute expression. If wineskins is expressed through a loan word and a descriptive phrase, it may still be advisable to provide a note. In cases where the use of wineskins is totally unfamiliar, we may translate, for example, “See how I am bursting to speak. I am like a bag that will hold no more.”

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 .