Bible Strands
Job 32:19
Behold, my belly is like unvented wine; it is about to burst like a new wineskin.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elihu addresses Job and the three older counselors during a prolonged debate over Job's suffering. He interrupts the silence to declare his own compelled need to speak.
The words — The Hebrew כְּיַיִן (kəyaḥayin) literally means "like wine," and לֹא־יִפָּתֵחַ (lōʾ-yippāṯēaḥ) renders "not opened" or unvented. The verb יִבָּקֵעַ (yibbāqēaʿ) describes the wineskin as "about to be split open."
The thread — The pressure imagery appears in Matthew 9:17, where Jesus warns that new wine will burst old wineskins. The surrounding context in Job 32:18–20 frames this pressure as an internal compulsion to speak and find relief.
Why it lands — The text states that unvented contentment creates inevitable rupture, demanding acknowledgment that truth requires release. It asks the reader to recognize that forced silence produces structural failure rather than peace.
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.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.
Cross-references
- Matthew 9:17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”