Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 16:21

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbor!

21. That he would maintain the right of a man with God,

And of a son of man against his neighbour.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Oh that one might plead for a man – A more correct rendering of this would be, Oh that it might be for a man to contend with God; that is, in a judicial controversy. It is the expression of an earnest desire to carry his cause at once before God, and to be permitted to argue it there. This desire Job had often expressed; see Job 13:3, note; Job 13:18-22, notes. On the grammatical construction of the passage, see Rosenmuller.

As a man pleadeth for his neighbour – Hebrew the son of man; that is, the offspring of man. Or, rather, as a man contendeth with his neighbor; as one man may carry on a cause with another. He desired to carry his cause directly before God, and to be permitted to argue the case with him, as one is permitted to maintain an argument with a man; see the notes at Job 13:20-21.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 21. O that one might plead] Let me only have liberty to plead with God, as a man hath with his fellow.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Oh that either I or some faithful advocate might be admitted to plead any cause, either with God, or rather with you, before Gods tribunal, God being witness and judge between us! But this verse is, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew text, otherwise translated and interpreted; either,

1. With respect to Christ, And he (i.e. God, last mentioned, to wit, God the Son, Christ Jesus) will plead for a man (i.e. for me, against whom you plead.) He modestly speaketh of himself in the third person, as is usual)

with God (to wit, with God the Father; and the Son of man (as Christ is oft called) will plead for his friend, or companion, or neighbour, i.e. for a man whom he hath taken into that relation to himself. It is plain that the mystery of mans redemption by Christ was known to the ancient patriarchs, as hath been oft noted before; and to Job among others, Job 19:25. Or,

2. As the matter for which he prayed and cried to God, That (so the Hebrew vau is frequently used) he (i.e. God) would plead, or judge, or give sentence for a man (i.e. for me, or in my cause) with, God, (i.e. with himself, the noun being put for the pronoun, as Gen 2:20; 4:15; Lev 14:15,16, and elsewhere; or at his own tribunal, to which I have appealed,)

as a man pleadeth for his friend or neighbour with or before an earthly judge and tribunal. This seems most agreeable to the scope of the place, which was to maintain his own integrity against his friends before God.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

21. onerather, “He”(God). “Oh, that He would plead for a man (namely, me) againstGod.” Job quaintly says, “God must support me against God;for He makes me to suffer, and He alone knows me to be innocent”[UMBREIT]. So God helpedJacob in wrestling against Himself (compare Job 23:6;Gen 32:25). God in JesusChrist does plead with God for man (Rom 8:26;Rom 8:27).

as a manliterally,”the Son of man.” A prefiguring of the advocacy of JesusChrista boon longed for by Job (Job9:33), though the spiritual pregnancy of his own words, designedfor all ages, was but little understood by him (Ps80:17).

for his neighbourHebrew,“friend.” Job himself (Job42:8) pleaded as intercessor for his “friends,” though”his scorners” (Job16:20); so Jesus Christ the Son of man (Lu23:34); “for friends” (Joh15:13-15).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Oh that one might plead for a man with God,…. That is, that one might be appointed and allowed to plead with God on his account; or that he be admitted to plead with God for himself; or however, that there might be a hearing of his case before God, and that he would decide the thing in controversy between him and his friends, when he doubted not but it would be given on his side:

as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbour; using great freedom, and powerful arguments, and having no dread of the judge, nor fear of carrying the cause for his neighbour; so Job wishes, that either one for him, or he himself, might be freed from the dread of the divine Majesty, and might be suffered to speak as freely to his case as a counsellor at the bar does for his client. The words will admit of a more evangelic sense by observing that God, to whom Job says his eye poured out tears, at the close of Job 16:20, is to be understood of the second Person in the Godhead, Jehovah, the Son of God, the Messiah; and then read these words that follow thus, “and he will plead for a man with God, and the Son of man for his friend”; which last clause perhaps may be better rendered, “even the Son of man”, c. and so they are expressive of Job’s faith, that though his friends despised him, yet he to whom he poured out his tears, and committed his case, would plead his cause with God for him, and thoroughly plead it, when he should be acquitted. The appellation, “the Son of man”, is a well known name for the Messiah in the New Testament, and is not altogether unknown in the Old, see Ps 80:17 and one part of his work and office is to be an advocate with the Father for his friends, whom he makes, reckons, and uses as such, even all the Father has given him, and he has redeemed by his blood; for these he pleads his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, to the satisfaction of the law, and justice of God, and against Satan, and all enemies whatever, and for every blessing they want; and for which work he is abundantly fit, because of the dignity of his person, his nearness to God his Father, and the interest he has in him. Gussetius l goes this way, and observes that this sense has not been taken notice of by interpreters, which he seems to wonder at; whereas our English annotator on the place had it long ago, and Mr. Caryll after him, though disapproved of by some modern interpreters.

l Ebr. Comment. p. 320, 321.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

21. Oh that one might plead Better, O that He ( God) would plead for man with God, as a son of man for his fellow. , weyokahh, argue, plead, is rendered by Schlottmann, Ewald, and others, do justice; by Delitzsch, decide; by Wordsworth, Carey, etc., plead. See note Job 9:33. The German mind has caught a glimmering view, as “through a glass, darkly,” of the blessed purport of this passage, thus: “God is regarded as a twofold person, an adversary, and at the same time an umpire;” (Hirtzel;) and “Job appeals from God to God.” (Delitzsch.) “With melancholy quaintness [ !! ] Job says, God must support me against God.” Umbreit. Melancholy there may be, but there is nothing quaint in human needs; for they are as deep as the soul and old as fallen man. Job’s burdened soul was not the first that has poured itself forth in sighs that God might plead with God in its behalf. In the falling tears of Job, germinant with words of hope, faith sees the bow of promise an indirect prophecy of that advocacy which in after times was revealed as existing in Christ. The grand essential features of the Christian scheme are here in outline man’s need of a superhuman mediator that this mediator must be co-equal with God and that our hope of mediation is in the Godhead itself all based upon the postulate which appeals to the universal heart, that kindred nature is vital to successful mediation: “As a son of man pleads for his fellow.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments