Job 11:14
in Job 11if you put away the iniquity in your hand, and allow no injustice to dwell in your tents,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away, And let not unrighteousness dwell in thy tents.
KJV
If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
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This verse in Job 11
Commentary
10 notes on this verseIf the iniquity which is in thine hand thou put far from thee, and wickedness dwell not in thy tabernacle, then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, yea thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear. Every sin is either committed in thought alone, or it is done in thought and deed together. Therefore 'iniquity in the hand' is offence in deed; but 'wickedness in the tabernacle,' is iniquity in the heart; for our heart is not unfitly called a tabernacle, wherein we are buried within ourselves, when we do not shew ourselves outwardly in act.
This site's exposition
if you direct your heart
on Job 11:13-15
Zophar's call to repentance, "if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him", rests on a charge Job has denied. The clause "if you put away the iniquity in your hand" assumes the guilt the friends have yet to prove.
This site's exposition
if you put away the iniquity in your hand
Zophar's counsel assumes the iniquity he has yet to prove. Barnes reads iniquity in your hand as goods wrongly gained, to be put away before a man lifts his hands to God. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point to Zacchaeus at Luke 19:8.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Zophar introduces himself as teacher and exhorts Job with the words, "Even if you are very clean, so clean that you stretch your hands continuously in prayer and ask for God's gifts, be still prepared to reject the evil that remains within you. Iniquity shall …
Here times are changed, and the meaning is, "If you want to obey me, open your arms in prayer to God with a pure heart, and you will never commit iniquity or transgression, and those things which Zophar mentions later will happen to you." And …
The Medieval Church1 voice
For prayer is useful when man first puts evil aside and then asks God to stop punishing him. He speaks to this theme saying, "If you will take away the evil from yourself which is on your hands," namely, so that you desist from the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If any of the gains of iniquity, any goods gotten by fraud or oppression, be in thy hand, make restitution thereof" (as Zaccheus, Luke xix. 8 ), "and shake thy hands from holding them, " Isa. xxxiii. The guilt of sin is not removed if the gain of sin be not restored.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
If iniquity be in thine hand,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Rather, "if thou wilt put far away the iniquity in thine hand" (as Zaccheus did, Lu 19:8). The apodosis or conclusion is at Job 11:15, "then shalt thou," &c.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
If iniquity be in thine hand - If you have in your possession anything that has been unjustly obtained. If you have oppressed the poor and the fatherless, and have what properly belongs to them, let it be restored. This is the obvious duty of one who comes to God to implore his favor; compare Luk 19:8.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Distance iniquity from your hand, and do not allow injustice to dwell in your tents.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| אָ֣וֶן | ʾaven | wickedness | H205 → | 77 times |
| בְּ֭יָדְךָ | beyadekha | [is] in hand your | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| הַרְחִיקֵ֑הוּ | harchikehu | put far away it | H7368 → | 57 times |
| וְאַל־ | veal- | and may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תַּשְׁכֵּ֖ן | tashken | you cause to dwell | H7931 → | 129 times |
| בְּאֹהָלֶ֣יךָ | beohaleikha | in tents your | H168 → | 345 times |
| עַוְלָֽה׃ | ʾavlah | injustice | H5766 → | 54 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
אָ֣וֶןwickedness
ʾavenH205 →77 times
בְּ֭יָדְךָ[is] in hand your
beyadekhaH3027 →1618 times
הַרְחִיקֵ֑הוּput far away it
harchikehuH7368 →57 times
וְאַל־and may not
veal-H408 →724 times
תַּשְׁכֵּ֖ןyou cause to dwell
tashkenH7931 →129 times
בְּאֹהָלֶ֣יךָin tents your
beohaleikhaH168 →345 times
עַוְלָֽה׃injustice
ʾavlahH5766 →54 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 4:8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
it leads to
- Zechariah 1:3
So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 55:6–7
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 145:18
The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.
- Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Malachi 3:7
Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But…
- Zechariah 1:3
Through
Job 22:23If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents
it leads to
- Job 11:13–14
As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Job 8:5–6
But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,
- Job 11:13–14
Through
Job 4:7Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
it leads to
- Psalms 37:25
I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
- Psalms 37:25
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON JOB 11:13-14; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book X; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 11:13-14 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.