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.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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,
- 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 became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.
- Ps 22:7All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
- Lam 2:15All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
- Jer 18:16To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
- Matt 7:12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
- Rom 12:15Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
- 2 Kgs 19:21This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
- Job 6:14To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
- Prov 10:19In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
- Job 35:16Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
- 1 Cor 12:26And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
- Matt 27:39–40And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
- Job 6:2–5Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!
- Zeph 2:15This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.
- Eccl 10:14A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
- Job 11:2Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?
- Ps 44:14Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
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.