If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; You will remove iniquity far from your tents.
Parallel translations
- WEB If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
- KJV If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
- BSB If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents
- NASB “If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove injustice far from your tent,
- NLT If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored— so clean up your life.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Eliphaz promises that if Job returns to God and puts away sin, he will be restored. He frames repentance as the path back to blessing.
Overview
Eliphaz holds out the genuine promise that returning to the Almighty brings restoration (cf. Zech 1:3; James 4:8). The call to put away unrighteousness is biblically true. Yet it again presumes Job has wickedness to renounce. The conditional offer of being 'built up' rightly describes God's grace to the penitent, even as it is misapplied to a blameless man.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Job 11:13–14“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
- Zech 1:3Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.
- Job 8:5–6If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
- Isa 55:6–7Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
- Hos 14:1–2Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
- Acts 26:20but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
- Zech 5:3–4Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.
- 2 Tim 2:19However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”
- Josh 7:13–16“Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.”
- Jude 1:20But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
- Isa 33:15He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil —
- Col 2:7rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
- Job 18:15There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.
- Isa 19:22Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.
- Job 12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
- Isa 31:6Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.
- Jer 31:4I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 22:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.