Job 16:4
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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.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse of Eliphaz which we had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the second part of the same song of lamentation with which he had before bemoaned himself, and is set to the same melancholy tune. I. He upbraids his friends with their unkind usage of him (Job 16:1-5). II. He represents his own case as very deplorable upon all accounts (Job 16:6-16). III. He still holds fast his integrity, concerning which he appeals to God's righteous judgment from the unrighteous censures of his friends (Job 16:14-22).
Open source ↗16:4 Job might have wanted to shake his head in mockery or in horror (2 Kgs 19:21; Pss 22:7; 109:25; Isa 37:22; Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15; Matt 27:39).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.
This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.
A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”
You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.