“How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind.
Parallel translations
- WEB “How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
- KJV How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
- NKJV “How long will you speak these things, And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?
- NASB “How long will you say these things, And the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
- NLT “How long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Bildad rebukes Job, asking how long he will speak such things, calling his words a mighty but empty wind. He dismisses Job's lament as mere bluster.
Overview
Bildad opens harshly, treating Job's anguished words as windy and worthless. His impatience reveals the friends' failure to truly comfort. While Job's complaints were indeed strong, Bildad mistakes honest lament for empty noise, modeling how not to respond to a suffering brother (compare Romans 12:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 15:2“Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
- Job 6:26Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair?
- 1 Kgs 19:11Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
- Exod 10:3So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.
- Job 7:11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 6:9that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!
- Job 11:2–3“Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a speaker be vindicated?
- Job 18:2“How long until you end these speeches? Show some sense, and then we can talk.
- Job 16:3Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?
- Prov 1:22“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Exod 10:7Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is in ruins?”
- Job 19:2–3“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 8:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.