What Does Job 16:21 Mean in the King James?
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The root behind Job’s “plead” is also the root behind God’s “let us reason together,” linking the hoped-for advocate to God’s own invitation to a hearing.
THE MEANING
This verse gives language to the ache of knowing how to plead for a neighbor while wishing someone would plead for you before God. Its longing is for advocacy with the same human closeness one person can offer another.
THE ROOT
וְיוֹכַח
weyokhach
GROWS FROM
יכח
To decide or prove a matter; by extension, to reason, reprove, or plead.
English “plead” can sound like a simple request, but יכח (yakhach) carries the work of making a case and bringing a matter into the open. Isaiah uses this same root when God says, “let us reason together,” placing Job’s hoped-for hearing beside God’s own language of engagement.
ALSO GROWS
venivvakhchah: “Let us reason together”
וְנִוָּכְחָה
This form appears in Isaiah 1:18, where the same root names an invitation to bring a matter into a shared hearing.
tokhechah: “Reproof” or “correction”
תּוֹכֵחָה
This branch shows that the root can describe a matter being tested or addressed directly, not only a plea for mercy.
THE PATTERN
The wish for someone to carry a person’s case before God recurs as a pattern of standing in the gap.
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:THE THREAD
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.Job’s “plead” (יוכח, yakhach) and Isaiah’s “reason together” (נִוָּכְחָה, nivvakhchah) grow from the same root: deciding, proving, and bringing a matter into the open. Job longs for an advocate to carry a case before God; Isaiah places that same language of hearing directly in God’s mouth.
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