4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
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.
4 I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you.
4 If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it.
4 I also could speak as you do, If your soul were in my soul's place. I could heap up words against you, And shake my head at you;
4 I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 16:4
Commentary on Job 16:1-5
(Read Job 16:1-5)
Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; Job here gives his the same character. Those who pass censures, must expect to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless, but what good does it do? Angry answers stir up men's passions, but never convince their judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. What Job says of his friends is true of all creatures, in comparison with God; one time or other we shall be made to see and own that miserable comforters are they all. When under convictions of sin, terrors of conscience, or the arrests of death, only the blessed Spirit can comfort effectually; all others, without him, do it miserably, and to no purpose. Whatever our brethren's sorrows are, we ought by sympathy to make them our own; they may soon be so.