Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 16:21

"That he would maintain the right of a man with God, And of a son of man with his neighbor!" — Job 16:21 (ASV)

After Job described the greatness of his adversity (Job 16:14), his humility (Job 16:16), and his innocence (Job 16:18), he proceeds to rebuke the empty comfort his friends repeatedly offered him regarding the hope of recovering temporal prosperity. As Eliphaz said previously, Is it a great thing for God to console you? (Job 15:11 and following).

Job intends to show the worthless nature of this comfort, beginning with the words, “My wordy friends,” as if to say, “They promise me empty words.” His comfort is not in recovering temporal goods but in attaining the enjoyment of God. Expressing this, he says, my eye pours out for God; that is, it weeps because of a desire for God, according to the sentiment in Psalm 41:4: My tears have been for me my bread by night by day, when I hear it said daily, where is your God?

To explain what he had said, he continues, and would that man were so judged by God as the son of a man is judged by his colleague. For a man is judged by his colleague when they are actually present to one another and can express their arguments to each other. Therefore, Job desired to be in God's presence to understand the reasons for the divine works and judgments, in which human happiness consists.

His comfort was in this hope, not in the empty words of his friends who promised the recovery of temporal prosperity. To show the futility of this promise, he adds, Behold! The short years pass away, because, as he had said before, man lives for a short time (Job 14:1). A great part of Job’s life had already passed, and so few years remained for him. Even if he were to experience prosperity, it would not bring him much comfort because of its short duration.

Some people believed that after death, a person returned to the course of this present life. It might therefore seem possible for Job to be comforted by the hope of recovering earthly prosperity, at least in that future life. To reject this idea, he then says, and I walk a path by which I will not return. For in this mortal life, a person moves toward death through the process of aging, and there can be no repetition in this process, such that a person would become a boy once again and walk through all the stages of life anew.