That one might plead for a man with God As a son of man with his neighbor!
Parallel translations
- WEB that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!
- KJV O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
- BSB Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
- NKJV Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man pleads for his neighbor!
- NLT I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job longs for someone to plead his case with God, as one might for a friend. He yearns for a mediator between himself and God.
Overview
Job voices a deep desire that one would maintain his right with God, arguing his cause as a man pleads for his neighbor. This expresses the felt need for a mediator who can stand between the sufferer and the Almighty. The longing is answered fully in Christ, the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), who represents his people before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Eccl 6:10Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
- Rom 9:20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
- Isa 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker — a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
- Job 13:3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.
- Job 13:22Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer me.
- Job 9:34–35Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;
- Job 40:1–5Moreover Yahweh answered Job,
- Job 23:3–7Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!
- Job 31:35oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 16:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.