Job 16:21
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor!
American King James Version (AKJV)
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor!
American Standard Version (ASV)
That he would maintain the right of a man with God, And of a son of man with his neighbor!
Basic English Translation (BBE)
So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.
Webster's Revision
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!
World English Bible
that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!
English Revised Version (ERV)
That he would maintain the right of a man with God, and of a son of man with his neighbour!
Clarke's Job 16:21 Bible Commentary
O that one might plead - Let me only have liberty to plead with God, as a man hath with his fellow.
Barnes's Job 16:21 Bible Commentary
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.