I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- NKJV 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;
- NASB “I too could speak like you, If only I were in your place. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you.
- NLT I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job says he too could speak against them and mock them if their positions were reversed. He highlights how easy it is to condemn another's suffering.
Overview
Job points out that, were the friends in his place, he could just as readily heap up words and shake his head in scorn. He exposes the cheapness of their criticism from a position of comfort. The verse rebukes self-righteous judgment of the afflicted and implicitly calls for the empathy that puts oneself in another's place.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 109:25I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head.
- Ps 22:7All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
- Lam 2:15All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”
- Jer 18:16to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
- Matt 7:12Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
- Rom 12:15Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
- 2 Kgs 19:21This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
- Job 6:14“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
- Prov 10:19In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.
- Job 35:16Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”
- 1 Cor 12:26When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
- Matt 27:39–40Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
- Job 6:2–5“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
- Zeph 2:15This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.
- Eccl 10:14A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?
- Job 11:2“Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?
- Ps 44:14You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 16:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.