“How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?”
Bildad asserts that the words of Job are like a great wind, suggesting that his speech is empty, insubstantial, and destructive without containing genuine truth or insight. The image of wind represents words that dissipate without effect, leaving nothing lasting behind. Bildad's critique dismisses the content of Job's lament as mere verbosity without substance.
Church Fathers on Job 8:2
Then answered Bildad, the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the breath of the words of thy mouth be multiplied? To the unrighteous the words of the righteous are ever grievous, and such as they hear spoken for edification, they bear as a burthen put upon them. As Bildad, the Shuhite, plainly indicates in his own case, when he says, How long wilt thou speak these things? For he that says how long, shews that he cannot any longer bear…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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