Job 22:23
in Job 22If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, If thou put away unrighteousness far from thy tents.
KJV
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
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This verse in Job 22
Commentary
12 notes on this verseThis is what he means, in my opinion: "Confess your sins; receive from God's mouth his support after your confession; and take his words into your heart." Certainly Eliphaz said these things, as he believed, by making himself equal to Job.… However, he pronounces a correct dogma here. He, in fact, thinks that Job suffers his adversities because of his sins but also so that he will be purified through the endurance of his afflictions. Once he is purified, he will be delivered from any extraneous element and freed from any involvement with iniquity.
This site's exposition
Receive instruction from His mouth
on Job 22:22-23
Eliphaz calls for repentance, "If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored", language that presumes a departure from God the narrative never records. Barnes notes the call to return makes sense only once the underlying charge is granted, and the whole speech has offered the charge without evidence.
This site's exposition
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored
Clarke reads restored as built up again, with servants and children in the house once more. Wesley sees a promise of both inward reform and outward good. Henry applies the call to remove injustice from the tents to the whole house.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
This means that you will be restored to your former state. And God will be your helper while before it seemed that he had completely neglected the care of your salvation, as if he had been absent.
The Medieval Church2 voices
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacle.
He shows in what manner he will experience these "best of fruits" saying, "If you will return to the Almighty," to believe in his omnipotence and you submit yourself to him, "he will rebuild you," as if to say: The prosperity of your house which …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Thou shalt - It is either, 1. a spiritual promise, if thou dost sincerely repent, God will give the grace effectually to reform thyself and family: or, 2. a temporal promise, thou shalt put away iniquity, or the punishment of thy sins; as iniquity is very often used: far from thy tabernacles; from all thy dwellings, and tents, and possessions.
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2 Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? 3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect? 4 Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If thou return to the Almighty,....
14 . " Let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacle. Put iniquity far off, the further the better, not only from thy heart and hand, but from thy house. Thou must not only not be wicked thyself, but must reprove and restrain sin in those that are under thy charge." Note, Family reformation is needful reformation; we and our house must serve the Lord.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
If thou return to the Almighty - Assuming that he was an impenitent sinner, and wholly unreconciled to him. Thou shalt be built up - A figure taken from building up a house, in contradistinction from pulling one down, and denoting that he would be prospered and happy. Thou shalt put away iniquity - Rosenmuller, Good, Noyes, and Wemyss, suppose correctly, as it seems to me, that the word “if” is to be understood here to complete the sense - “if thou shalt put away iniquity.” From thy tabernacle - From thy tent, or dwelling.
Thou shalt be built up - God will restore thee to thy wonted state of prosperity; and thou shalt again have a household, not only of servants, but of children also. So much may be Implied in the words, Thou shalt be Built Up. See my sermon on Job 22:21-23.
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 |
| תָּשׁ֣וּב | tashuv | you will return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| עַד־ | ʾadosha- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| שַׁ֭דַּי | shadai | [the] Almighty | H7706 → | 48 times |
| תִּבָּנֶ֑ה | tibaneh | you will be built up | H1129 → | 376 times |
| תַּרְחִ֥יק | tarchik | you will remove | H7368 → | 57 times |
| עַ֝וְלָ֗ה | ʾavlah | injustice | H5766 → | 54 times |
| מֵאָהֳלֶֽךָ׃ | meoholekha | from tent your | H168 → | 345 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
תָּשׁ֣וּבyou will return
tashuvH7725 →1056 times
עַד־to
ʾadosha-H5704 →1261 times
שַׁ֭דַּי[the] Almighty
shadaiH7706 →48 times
תִּבָּנֶ֑הyou will be built up
tibanehH1129 →376 times
תַּרְחִ֥יקyou will remove
tarchikH7368 →57 times
עַ֝וְלָ֗הinjustice
ʾavlahH5766 →54 times
מֵאָהֳלֶֽךָ׃from tent your
meoholekhaH168 →345 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
Zechariah 1:3So 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.’
it leads to
- Jeremiah 3:22
“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.
- 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…
- Joel 2:12
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Deuteronomy 30:2–10
and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,
- Jeremiah 4:1
“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
- Jeremiah 3:22
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 22:23; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON JOB 16.61, 69 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.