Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 16

Then Job answered. —In replying, Job no longer continues the argument, which he finds useless.

But, after complaining about how his friends have conducted it, and contrasting how they have treated him with how he would treat them if they were in his situation, he proceeds again to elaborate on his condition.

He makes a touching appeal to Heaven, which prepares us for the more complete confession in Job 19:0. He ends by declaring that his case is desperate.

I have heard many such things. —Trite rather than true, or at least the whole truth.

“Common is the common-place,
And vacant chaff well meant for grain.”

Shall vain words have an end? —The English idiom rather requires, “Shall not vain words have an end? for if not, what emboldens or provokes you that you answer?” Eliphaz had contributed nothing to the discussion in his last reply; he had simply reiterated what had been said before.

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

Though I speak ... — “I cannot help but reply, though to reply gives me no relief.”