Job 16:4

I also could speak as ye do, if your soul were in my soul's stead. I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.

A Conservative Version

In The King James Version

I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

In Context

3Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes thee that thou answer?

5[But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage [your grief].

Read all of Job 16

Cross References

Job 6:2O that my grief were but weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

Job 11:2Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be justified?

Psalms 22:7All those who see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head, [saying],

Psalms 44:14Thou make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

Proverbs 10:19Transgression is not lacking in the multitude of words, but he who refrains his lips does wisely.

Jeremiah 18:16to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shake his head.

Matthew Henry on Job 16:2-6

The Reply of Job to Eliphaz. ( b. c. 1520.) 1 Then Job answered and said, 2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all. 3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? 4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you. 5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief. Both Job and his friends took the same way that disputants commonly… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Job 16:4