Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 4. I also could speak ] It is probably better to render some of these permissives or potential verbs literally in the future tense, as in the Hebrew: I also WILL speak. Mr. Good has adopted this mode.
If your soul were in my soul's stead ] If you were in my place, I also could quote many wise sayings that might tend to show that you were hypocrites and wicked men; but would this be fair? Even when I might not choose to go farther in assertion, I might shake my head by way of insinuation that there was much more behind, of which I did not choose to speak; but would this be right? That such sayings are in memory, is no proof that they were either made for me, or apply to my case.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-5 - Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as unprofitable, and nothin to the purpose; Job here gives his the same character. Those who pas 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 miserabl 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 sympath to make them our own; they may soon be so.
Original Hebrew גם1571 אנכי595 ככם אדברה1696 לו3863 ישׁ3426 נפשׁכם5315 תחת8478 נפשׁי5315 אחבירה2266 עליכם5921 במלים4405 ואניעה5128 עליכם5921 במו1119 ראשׁי׃7218
