Albert Barnes Commentary Job 32:19

"Behold, my breast is as wine which hath no vent; Like new wine-skins it is ready to burst." — Job 32:19 (ASV)

Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent - Margin, as in Hebrew, “is not opened” - לאיפתח lo' yipâthach. The reference is to a bottle in which there is no opening, or no vent for the fermenting wine to work itself off. It is usual to leave a small hole in barrels and casks when wine, cider, or beer is fermenting. This is necessary in order to prevent the cask from bursting. Elihu compares himself to a bottle in which new wine had been put, and where there was no vent for it, and when in consequence it was ready to burst.

That new wine is here intended is apparent from the connection, and has been so understood by the ancient versions. So Jerome renders it, Mustum, must, or new wine. The Septuagint, ἀσκὸς γλεύκους ζέων δεδεμένος askos gleukous zeōn dedemenos - “a bottle filled with sweet wine, fermenting, bound;” that is, which has no vent.

It is ready to burst like new bottles - The Septuagint renders this, “As the torn (ἐῤῥηγώς errēgōs) bellows of a smith.” Why this version was adopted. It is not easy to say. The comparison would be pertinent, but the version could not be made from the present Hebrew text. It is possible that the copy of the Hebrew text which the Septuagint had may have read: הרשים - “artificers,” instead of: הדשים - new. Then the meaning would be, “as the bottles, or skins of artificers;” that is, as their bellows, which were doubtless at first merely the skins of animals.

The reference of Elihu, however, is undoubtedly to skins that were used as bottles. New skins are mentioned here as ready to burst, not because they were more likely to burst than old ones—for that was by no means the case—but because new and unfermented wine would naturally be placed in them, thus endangering them. Bottles in the East, it is well known, are usually made of the skins of goats (see the notes at Matthew 9:17).

The process of manufacturing them at present is this: The skins of the goats are stripped off whole except at the neck. The holes at the feet and tail are sewed up. They are first stuffed out full, and strained by driving in small billets and chips of oak wood, and then are filled with a strong infusion of oak bark for a certain time, until the hair becomes fixed and the skin sufficiently tanned.

They are sold at different prices, from fifteen up to fifty piastres (Robinson’s Bibli. Research. ii. 440). Elihu, perhaps, could not have found a more striking illustration of his meaning.

He could no longer restrain himself, and he gave utterance, therefore, to the views which he deemed so important. The word “belly” in this verse (בטן beṭen) is rendered by Umbreit and Noyes as bosom.

It not improbably has this meaning, and the reference is to the fact that in the East the words are uttered forth much more ab imo pectore, or are much more guttural than with us. The voice seems to come from the lower part of the throat, or from the bosom, in a manner which the people of Western nations find it difficult to imitate.