Albert Barnes Commentary Job 16:22

"For when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return." — Job 16:22 (ASV)

When a few years are come — Margin: “years of number;” that is, numbered years, or a few years. The same idea is expressed in Job 7:21 (see the notes on that passage).

The idea is that he must soon die. Therefore, he desired, before he went down to the grave, to present his case before God and to have—as he did not doubt he would—the divine attestation in his favor (compare the notes on Job 19:25-27).

He was now overwhelmed with calamities and reproaches and was about to die in this condition. He did not wish to die this way.

He wished that the reproaches might be removed, and that his character might be cleared and vindicated. He firmly believed that if he could be allowed to present his case directly before God, he would be able to vindicate his character and obtain the divine verdict in his favor; and if he obtained that, he was willing to die.

It is the expression of a wish common to everyone: that one's sun may not go down under a cloud; that whatever aspersions may rest on one's character may be removed; and that one's name, if remembered at all after death, may pass untarnished to future generations, and be such that friends can speak of it without shame.