Job 16:4
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. 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.
Job declares to his friends that he is fully capable of speaking just as they have spoken to him, piling up accusing words against them and shaking his head at them in reproach. His statement acknowledges that he could return their reproaches in kind, matching their harsh language and contemptuous gestures. He does not deny having the power to censure, but names it plainly as the course they have taken toward him.
He refuses to answer reproach with reproach, choosing instead a different use of speech. If their positions were reversed, he would employ his words to strengthen and comfort them in their suffering. His resolve is to encourage and uphold the afflicted rather than to add to their burden.
The situation reveals that those who do not grasp the nature of another's suffering readily misjudge and condemn the sufferer. Because human knowledge of another's trial is limited, those who would help must recognize that limit. Their duty is to speak in ways that support and relieve grief, not in ways that deepen it through censure.