Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 16:4

"I also could speak as ye do; If your soul were in my soul`s stead, I could join words together against you, And shake my head at you." — Job 16:4 (ASV)

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.