Job 35:16 Study Bible: Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge."

◄ Job 35:16 ►

So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge."

So Job opens his mouth
The phrase "opens his mouth" is a common biblical expression indicating the act of speaking or expressing one's thoughts. In the Hebrew context, the mouth is often seen as the gateway to the heart's intentions. Job, in his suffering, is portrayed as vocalizing his distress and confusion. Historically, this reflects the ancient Near Eastern practice of lamentation, where individuals would openly express their grievances. The act of opening one's mouth in this context suggests a deep, personal outpouring of emotion and thought.

in vain
The Hebrew word for "vain" often conveys a sense of emptiness or futility. In the biblical context, it implies actions or words that lack substance or purpose. Elihu, the speaker in this passage, criticizes Job for speaking without achieving any meaningful resolution or understanding. This reflects a broader biblical theme where human wisdom is often contrasted with divine wisdom, emphasizing the limitations of human understanding without God's guidance.

and multiplies words
The phrase "multiplies words" suggests an abundance or overflow of speech. In the ancient world, verbosity was sometimes seen as a sign of wisdom, but here it is critiqued. The implication is that Job's extensive dialogue, rather than bringing clarity, only adds to the confusion. This critique aligns with the biblical caution against excessive speech, as seen in Proverbs, where wisdom is often associated with measured and thoughtful words.

without knowledge
The term "knowledge" in Hebrew often denotes not just intellectual understanding but also experiential insight and wisdom. Elihu accuses Job of speaking without true comprehension of God's ways. This highlights a central theme in the Book of Job: the contrast between human and divine knowledge. The historical context of this critique is rooted in the wisdom literature of the Bible, which frequently emphasizes the fear of the Lord as the beginning of true knowledge and understanding. Elihu's statement serves as a reminder of the limitations of human perspective and the need for humility before God's infinite wisdom.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Job
A man described as blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil. He is the central figure in the Book of Job, experiencing intense suffering and questioning the reasons behind it.

2. Elihu
A younger friend of Job who speaks in chapters 32-37. He is critical of Job's responses and offers his perspective on Job's suffering and God's justice.

3. Uz
The land where Job lived, often associated with the region east of Israel, possibly in Edom or northern Arabia.

4. God
The sovereign Creator who allows Job's testing and ultimately speaks to Job, providing divine perspective and resolution.

5. Suffering
The central event in the Book of Job, where Job loses his wealth, health, and family, leading to deep theological discussions about the nature of suffering and divine justice.

Teaching Points

The Danger of Speaking Without Knowledge
Elihu criticizes Job for speaking without understanding. This serves as a reminder to seek wisdom and understanding before speaking, especially in matters of faith and suffering.

Humility in Suffering
Job's situation teaches us the importance of maintaining humility and trust in God, even when we do not understand our circumstances.

The Role of Friends in Times of Trouble
Elihu's intervention shows the value of having friends who can offer different perspectives, though it also highlights the need for discernment in accepting advice.

The Importance of Listening to God
Ultimately, God's response to Job underscores the importance of listening to God's voice above all others, seeking His wisdom and guidance.

Guarding Our Speech
The passage encourages believers to be mindful of their words, ensuring they are edifying and rooted in truth, especially when discussing complex issues like suffering.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Elihu's perspective on Job's speech challenge us to consider the way we speak about God and our circumstances?

2. In what ways can we ensure that our words are filled with knowledge and understanding, especially in times of personal trial?

3. How can the account of Job and his friends inform our approach to offering support to others who are suffering?

4. What practical steps can we take to cultivate humility and patience in our relationship with God, particularly when we face difficult situations?

5. How do the additional scriptures connected to Job 35:16 reinforce the importance of being slow to speak and quick to listen in our spiritual lives?

Connections to Other Scriptures

James 1:19-20
This passage advises believers to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, which connects to Elihu's criticism of Job's hasty words.

Proverbs 10:19
This verse warns that when words are many, sin is not absent, aligning with Elihu's observation of Job's speech.

Ecclesiastes 5:2
Advises not to be quick with words before God, emphasizing reverence and humility in speech, similar to Elihu's counsel to Job.

Sermons

Elihu's Third Speech: the Profit of Godliness

E. Johnson

Job 35:1-16

People

Elihu, Job

Places

Topics

Abundant, Emptily, Empty, Increasing, Job, Job's, Mouth, Multiplies, Multiplieth, Open, Opened, Opens, Profit, Talk, Vain, Vanity, Wide

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Job 35:16

5575 talk, idle
5845 emptiness

Library

Questions which Ought to be Asked
ELIHU PERCEIVED the great ones of the earth oppressing the needy, and he traced their domineering tyranny to their forgetfulness of God: "None saith, Where is God my Maker?" Surely, had they thought of God they could not have acted so unjustly. Worse still, if I understand Elihu aright, he complained that even among the oppressed there was the same departure in heart from the Lord: they cried out by reason of the arm of the mighty, but unhappily they did not cry unto God their Maker, though he waits …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880

Songs in the Night
"But none saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?"--Job 35:10. ELIHU was a wise man, exceeding wise, though not as wise as the all-wise Jehovah, who sees light in the clouds, and finds order in confusion; hence Elihu, being much puzzled at beholding Job thus afflicted, cast about him to find the cause of it, and he very wisely hit upon one of the most likely reasons, although it did not happen to be the right one in Job's case. He said within himself--"Surely, if men be tried …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 44: 1898

Spurgeon -- Songs in the Night
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, Essex, England, in 1834. He was one of the most powerful and popular preachers of his time, and his extraordinary force of character and wonderful enthusiasm attracted vast audiences. His voice was unusually powerful, clear and melodious, and he used it with consummate skill. In the preparation of his sermons he meditated much but wrote not a word, so that he was in the truest sense a purely extemporaneous speaker. Sincerity, intensity, imagination and …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 8

'Why Should I?'
Thou saidst, What advantage will it be? What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.' (Job xxxv. 3, 4.) In reading these words I have no wish to enter into the controversy between Job and his friends as to the relationship of physical suffering to sin, but to emphasize a certain mental attitude which they indicate, and which often expresses itself in relation to other things. The human mind is so constituted that men will not commit …
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service

The Introduction to the Work with Some General Account of Its Design
. 1, 2.That true religion is very rare, appears from comparing the nature of it with the lives and characters of men around us.--3. The want of it, matter of just lamentation.--4. To remedy this evil is the design of the ensuing Treatise.--5, 6. To which, therefore, the Author earnestly bespeaks the attention of the reader, as his own heart is deeply interested in it.--7 to 12. A general plan of the Work; of which the first fifteen chapters relate chiefly to the Rise of Religion, and the remaining …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

The New Song
Heinrich Suso Job xxxv. 10 O Lord, in my songs I have praised Thee For all that was sweet and was fair; And now a new song would I sing Thee, A song that is wondrous and rare. A song of the heart that is broken, A song of the sighs and the tears, The sickness, the want, and the sadness Of the days of our pilgrimage years. A song of the widows and orphans, Of the weary and hungry and sad-- Loud praise of the will Thou has broken, The will of the young and the glad. A song of the outcasts and martyrs, …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

Whether the Motive of Anger is Always Something done against the one who is Angry?
Objection 1: It would seem that the motive of anger is not always something done against the one who is angry. Because man, by sinning, can do nothing against God; since it is written (Job 35:6): "If thy iniquities be multiplied, what shalt thou do against Him?" And yet God is spoken of as being angry with man on account of sin, according to Ps. 105:40: "The Lord was exceedingly angry with His people." Therefore it is not always on account of something done against him, that a man is angry. Objection …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether a Man May Merit Anything from God?
Objection 1: It would seem that a man can merit nothing from God. For no one, it would seem, merits by giving another his due. But by all the good we do, we cannot make sufficient return to God, since yet more is His due, as also the Philosopher says (Ethic. viii, 14). Hence it is written (Lk. 17:10): "When you have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do." Therefore a man can merit nothing from God. Objection 2: Further, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Beneficence is an Act of Charity?
Objection 1: It would seem that beneficence is not an act of charity. For charity is chiefly directed to God. Now we cannot benefit God, according to Job 35:7: "What shalt thou give Him? or what shall He receive of thy hand?" Therefore beneficence is not an act of charity. Objection 2: Further, beneficence consists chiefly in making gifts. But this belongs to liberality. Therefore beneficence is an act of liberality and not of charity. Objection 3: Further, what a man gives, he gives either as being …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether a Human Action is Meritorious or Demeritorious Before God, According as it is Good or Evil?
Objection 1: It would seem that man's actions, good or evil, are not meritorious or demeritorious in the sight of God. Because, as stated above [1202](A[3]), merit and demerit imply relation to retribution for good or harm done to another. But a man's action, good or evil, does no good or harm to God; for it is written (Job 35:6,7): "If thou sin, what shalt thou hurt Him? . . . And if thou do justly, what shalt thou give Him?" Therefore a human action, good or evil, is not meritorious or demeritorious …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Sin is Aggravated by Reason of Its Causing More Harm?
Objection 1: It would seem that a sin is not aggravated by reason of its causing more harm. Because the harm done is an issue consequent to the sinful act. But the issue of an act does not add to its goodness or malice, as stated above ([1736]Q[20], A[5]). Therefore a sin is not aggravated on account of its causing more harm. Objection 2: Further, harm is inflicted by sins against our neighbor. Because no one wishes to harm himself: and no one can harm God, according to Job 35:6, 8: "If thy iniquities …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

An Essay on the Mosaic Account of the Creation and Fall of Man
THERE are not a few difficulties in the account, which Moses has given of the creation of the world, and of the formation, and temptation, and fall of our first parents. Some by the six days of the creation have understood as many years. Whilst others have thought the creation of the world instantaneous: and that the number of days mentioned by Moses is only intended to assist our conception, who are best able to think of things in order of succession. No one part of this account is fuller of difficulties, …
Nathaniel Lardner—An Essay on the Mosaic Account of the Creation and Fall of Man

The Advanced Christian Reminded of the Mercies of God, and Exhorted to the Exercise of Habitual Love to Him, and Joy in Him.
1. A holy joy in God, our privilege as well as our duty.--2. The Christian invited to the exercise of it.--3. By the consideration of temporal mercies.--4. And of spiritual favors.--5. By the views of eternal happiness.--6. And of the mercies of God to others, the living and the dead.--7. The chapter closes with an exhortation to this heavenly exercise. And with an example of the genuine workings of this grateful joy in God. 1. I WOULD now suppose my reader to find, on an examination of his spiritual …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

Whether a Man Can Merit Anything from God
Whether a Man can Merit Anything from God We proceed to the first article thus: 1. It seems that a man cannot merit anything from God. No one merits a reward by repaying what he owes to another. But we cannot even fully repay what we owe to God, by all the good that we do. For we always owe him more than this, as the philosopher says in 8 Ethics 14. Hence it is said in Luke 17:10: "when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that …
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

Whether it is Necessary for the Salvation of All, that they Should Believe Explicitly in the Mystery of Christ?
Objection 1: It would seem that it is not necessary for the salvation of all that they should believe explicitly in the mystery of Christ. For man is not bound to believe explicitly what the angels are ignorant about: since the unfolding of faith is the result of Divine revelation, which reaches man by means of the angels, as stated above [2287](A[6]; [2288]FP, Q[111], A[1]). Now even the angels were in ignorance of the mystery of the Incarnation: hence, according to the commentary of Dionysius (Coel. …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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