Job 15:2

Study note

Setting — Eliphaz the Temanite addresses Job immediately after his opening reply in Job 15:1, posing a rhetorical challenge to Job’s recent speech.

The words — The text uses ר֑וּחַ (Ru.ach) = wind and בִּטְנֽ/וֹ (bit.N/o) = his belly to describe a man who attempts to satisfy his stomach with the hot east wind.

The thread — This wind imagery for empty speech recurs in Job 6:26, where Job himself asks if his words are treated as wind, and in Job 8:2, where a friend calls his mouth’s words a blustering wind.

Why it lands — The verse demands that a listener evaluate whether their own speech builds up or merely consumes air, leaving the speaker with no substantive counsel.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.