Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 16:21

21. O that one might plead for a man * with God , as a man pleadeth for his Neighbour!

O that either I or some faithful Advocate might be admitted to plead my Cause, either with God, or rather with you, before God's 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 Iob among others, Ch. 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.

Marginal references: Ch. 31. 35. Eccl. 6. 10. Isa. 45. 9. Rom. 9. 20.; Or, friend.