Job 16:4

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) If your soul.—i.e., person=“ If you were in my place, I could heap up words,” &c. It is doubtful whether this is in contrast to what comes afterwards in the fifth verse, as in the Authorised Version, or whether it may not be in parallelism with it; thus: “I would make myself a companion to you—condole and sympathise with you. in words, and shake my head at you as a mark of sympathy.” The phrase differs somewhat from that in Psalm 22:7; Isaiah 37:22, where to shake the head expresses contempt and derision.

Benson Commentary

Job 16:4. I could also speak as ye do — It is an easy thing to trample upon those that are down, and to find fault with what those say who are in extremity of pain and affliction. If your soul were in my soul’s stead — If our conditions were changed, and you were in misery like me, and I at ease like you; I could heap up words against you — As you do against me; that is, I could multiply accusations and reproaches against you, and how would you like it? how would you bear it? and shake my head at you — In a way of derision, as this phrase is commonly used. Heath renders these clauses interrogatively, thus: If your soul were in my soul’s stead, would I accumulate sentences against you? would I shake my head at you? Which rendering gives the verse a very pathetic turn.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I also could speak as ye do - In the same reproachful manner, and stringing together old proverbs and maxims as you have.

If your soul were in my soul's stead - If you were in my place. The idea is, that there is no difficulty in finding arguments to overwhelm the afflicted - a truth which most persons who have been unfortunate, have had opportunity to experience.

I could heap up words against you - Or, rather, "I could string together words against you." The idea is not that of heaping up, or accumulating; it is that of tying together, or uniting; and refers here to stringing together old maxims, saws, and proverbs, in the form of a set argument or discourse. The idea of Job is, that their discourses were nothing but ancient proverbs, thrown together, or strung along without regard to order, pertinency, or force. The Hebrew word used here (חבר châbar) means to bind, to bind together, to associate, to be confederate. It may be applied to friends - united in friendship; to nations - united in an alliance, etc. Gesenius supposes that it means here that he "would make a league with words against them;" but the above seems to be the more probable interpretation. The Septuagint renders it, "then I could insult you - ἐναλοῦμαι enaloumai - with words." Jerome (Vulgate) "I would console you with words, and move my head over you." The Chaldee is as the Hebrew - חבר châbar. Dr. Good renders it, "against you will I string together old sayings."

And shake mine head at you - An action common to all countries and ages, expressive of contempt, or of threatening; compare Jeremiah 18:16; Lamentations 2:15; Zephaniah 2:15; Matthew 27:39. So Lucretius ii.:1163:

Jamque caput quassans grandis suspirat ararat

Crebrius incassum magnum cecidisse laborem.

In like manner Virgil, Aeneid xii. 292:

Tum quassanos caput, haec effudit pectore dicta.

So, also, Homer, Odyssey ε e:

Κινήσας δὲ κάρη πρότι ὅν μυθήσατο Θυμόν.

Kinēsas de karē proti hon muthēsato thumon.

The meaning of Job here is, that be could as easily have expressed contempt, reproach, and scorn, as they did. It required no uncommon talent to do it, and he felt that he would have been fully sufficient for the task.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. heap up—rather, "marshal together (an army of) words against you."

shake … head—in mockery; it means nodding, rather than shaking; nodding is not with us, as in the East, a gesture of scorn (Isa 37:22; Jer 18:16; Mt 27:39).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If your soul, i.e. your person, as Genesis 12:5.

I could heap up words against you, i.e. I could multiply accusations and reproaches against you, as you do against me.

Shake mine head at you; in way of derision, as this phrase is most commonly used; as 2 Kings 19:21 Psalm 22:7 Isaiah 37:22 Matthew 27:39.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I also could speak as ye do,.... As big words, with as high a tone, with as stiff a neck, and as haughtily and loftily; or "ought I to speak as you do" (m)? that I ought not, nor would you think I ought, if you were in my case; or, being so, "would I speak as you do" (n)? no, I would not, my conscience would not suffer me:

if your soul were in my soul's stead; in the same afflicted state and condition, in the same distressed case and circumstances; not that he wished it, as some render the words, for a good man will not wish hurt to another; only he supposes this, as it was a case supposable, and not impossible to be a fact, some time or another, in this state of uncertainty and change; however it is right to put ourselves in the case of others in our own imagination, that so it may be considered in the proper point of view, that we may better judge how we should choose to be treated ourselves in such circumstances, and so teach us to do that to others as we would have done to ourselves:

I could heap up words against you; talk as fast as you to me, and run you down with a great torrent of words; Job had a great fluency, he talked a great deal in his afflicted, state, too much as his friends thought, who represent him as dealing in a multitude of words, and as a very talkative man, Job 8:2; and what could he have done, had he his health, and in prosperous circumstances as formerly? he could have brought many charges and accusations against them, as they had against him; or "would I heap up words against you?" or "ought I?" &c. (o); no, it would not be my duty, nor would I do it; humanity and good sense would never have allowed me to do it; but, on the contrary, I "would have joined myself with you", in a social, free, and familiar manner, in words (p), in a friendly meeting with you, so the words may be read and paraphrased; I would have come and paid you a visit, and sat down by you, and entered into a kind and compassionate conversation with you about your case and condition, and done all I could to comfort you; I would have framed and composed (as the word used signifies) a set discourse on purpose; I would have sought out all the acceptable words, and put them together in the best manner I could for you (q); had I the tongue of the learned, I would have made use of it, to have spoken a word in season to you:

and shake mine head at you; by way of scorn and derision, that is, he could have done it as well as they; shaking the head is used as a sign of contempt, Psalm 22:8; or "would I", or "ought I to shake my head at you" (r) if in my case? no, I would not; as I ought not, I would have scorned to have done it; or the sense may be, "I would have shook my head at you", in a way of pity, bemoaning lamenting, and, condoling your case (s); see Job 42:11.

(m) "sicut vos loqui deberem?" Schmidt. (n) "Etiam ego ut vos loquerer?" Cocceius; so Broughton. (o) "nectere deberem nexus contra vos verbis?" Schmidt. (p) "Adjungerem me super vos in sermonibus", Montanus, Bolducius; so Vatablus, Cocceius. (q) "Vobis enim aptum sermonem accommodarem", Tigarine version; so Codurcus. (r) "et caput meum quassarem super vobis", Cocceius; "movere deberem super vos caput meum?" Schmidt. (s) So Tigurine version and Bar Tzemach, , Hom. II. 17. v. 200.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(c) I would that you felt what I do.

(d) That is, mock at your misery, as you do at mine.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. I could heap up words] Rather, I could compose words. By “composing” or joining together words Job means making formal, artificial and heartless speeches; cf. the string of traditional sayings put together by Eliphaz, ch. Job 15:20 seq.

shake mine head at you] “A gesture of astonishment, as much as to say ‘Eh! I would not have thought that the pious man, as it appears from his misfortunes, had been so great a sinner’ ” (Hitzig), cf. Psalm 22:7, Isaiah 37:22.

4, 5. Job then, with the supercilious contempt peculiar to him and in justification of his rejection of their “comfort,” holds up a picture of it before them: their method is not a difficult one, he also could adopt it, if his case were theirs; he could shake his head over them and give them lip-comfort enough.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you. It is only too easy to heap up rhetorical declamation against an unfortunate sufferer, whose physical and mental agonies absorb almost his whole attention. If you were in my place and condition, and I in yours, I could moralize in your tone and spirit for hours. And shake my head at you. A Hebrew mode of expressing condemnation of a man's conduct (see Psalm 22:7; Isaiah 37:22; Jeremiah 18:16; Matthew 27:39, etc.). Job 16:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

1 Then began Job, and said:

2 I have now heard such things in abundance,

Troublesome comforters are ye all!

3 Are windy words now at an end,

Or what goadeth thee that thou answerest?

4 I also would speak like you,

If only your soul were in my soul's stead.

I would weave words against you,

And shake my head at you;

5 I would encourage you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips should soothe you.

The speech of Eliphaz, as of the other two, is meant to be comforting. It is, however, primarily an accusation; it wounds instead of soothing. Of this kind of speech, says Job, one has now heard רבּות, much, i.e., (in a pregnant sense) amply sufficient, although the word might signify elliptically (Psalm 106:43; comp. Nehemiah 9:28) many times (Jer. frequenter); multa (as Job 23:14) is, however, equally suitable, and therefore is to be preferred as the more natural. Job 16:2 shows how כּאלּה is intended; they are altogether עמל מנחמי, consolatores onerosi (Jer.), such as, instead of alleviating, only cause עמל, molestiam (comp. on Job 13:4). In Job 16:3 Job returns their reproach of being windy, i.e., one without any purpose and substance, which they brought against him, Job 15:2.: have windy words an end, or (לו vel equals אם in a disjunctive question, Ges. 155, 2, b) if not, what goads thee on to reply? מרץ has been already discussed on Job 6:25. The Targ. takes it in the sense of מלץ: what makes it sweet to thee, etc.; the Jewish interpreters give it, without any proof, the signification, to be strong; the lxx transl. παρενοχλήσει, which is not transparent. Hirz., Ew., Schlottm., and others, call in the help of the Arabic marida (Aramaic מרע), to be sick, the IV. form of which signifies "to make sick," not "to injure."

(Note: The primary meaning of Arabic marida (root mr, stringere) is maceratum esse, by pressing, rubbing, beating, to be tender, enervated (Germ. dialectic and popul. abmaracht); comp. the nearest related maratsa, then maraza, marasa, maraa, and further, the development of the meaning of morbus and μαλαακία; - originally and first, of bodily sickness, then also of diseased affections and conditions of spirit, as envy, hatred, malice, etc.; vid., Sur. 2, v. 9, and Beidhwi thereon. - Fl.)

We keep to the primary meaning, to pierce, penetrate; Hiph. to goad, bring out, lacessere: what incites thee, that (כי as Job 6:11, quod not quum) thou repliest again? The collective thought of what follows is not that he also, if they were in his place, could do as they have done; that he, however, would not so act (thus e.g., Blumenfeld: with reasons for comfort I would overwhelm you, and sympathizingly shake my head over you, etc.). This rendering is destroyed by the shaking of the head, which is never a gesture of pure compassion, but always of malignant joy, Sir. 12:18; or of mockery at another's fall, Isaiah 37:22; and misfortune, Psalm 22:8; Jeremiah 18:16; Matthew 27:39. Hence Merc. considers the antithesis to begin with Job 16:5, where, however, there is nothing to indicate it: minime id facerem, quin potius vos confirmarem ore meo - rather: that he also could display the same miserable consolation; he represents to them a change of their respective positions, in order that, as in a mirror, they may recognise the hatefulness of their conduct. The negative antecedent clause si essem (with לוּ, according to Ges. 155, 2, f) is surrounded by cohortatives, which (since the interrogative form of interpretation is inadmissible) signify not only loquerer, but loqui possem, or rather loqui vellem (comp. e.g., Psalm 51:18, dare vellem). When he says: I would range together, etc. (Carey: I would combine), he gives them to understand that their speeches are more artificial than natural, more declamations than the outgushings of the heart; instead of מלּים, it is בּמלּים, since the object of the action is thought is as the means, as in Job 16:4 ראשׁי במּו, capite meo (for caput meum, Psalm 22:8), and בּפיהם, Job 16:10, for פּיּהם, comp. Jeremiah 18:16; Lamentations 1:17, Ges. 138† ; Ew. takes חהביר by comparison of the Arabic chbr, to know (the IV. form of which, achbara, however, signifies to cause to know, announce), in a sense that belongs neither to the Heb. nor to the Arab.: to affect wisdom. In Job 16:5 the chief stress is upon "with my mouth," without the heart being there, so also on the word "my lips," solace (ניד ἅπ. λεγ., recalling Isaiah 57:19, ניב שׂפתים, offspring or fruit of the lips) of my lips, i.e., dwelling only on the lips, and not coming from the heart. In ''אאמּצכם (Piel, not Hiph.) the Ssere is shortened to Chirek (Ges. 60, rem. 4). According to Job 16:6, כאבכם is to be supplied to יחשׂך. He also could offer such superficial condolence without the sympathy which places itself in the condition and mood of the sufferer, and desires to afford that relief which it cannot. And yet how urgently did he need right and effectual consolation! He is not able to console himself, as the next strophe says: neither by words nor by silence is his pain assuaged.