If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
Ver. 23. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up] By sin men run from God, by repentance they return to him. Break off thy sins by repentance, and put away iniquity far from thy tabernacle (for iniquity and repentance cannot cohabit, and he is no true penitentiary that reformeth not his family, that setteth not up God wherever he hath to do), so shalt thou be built up; that is, thou shalt be restored, and all thy losses in wealth and children shall be made up again; prorsus erigeris qui iam collapsus es; thou, who art now down on all fours, shalt be new set up, and made to stand in thy former strength. Only thou must return usque ad Omnipotentem, all out as far as to the Almighty, thou must not give the half turn only, as hypocrites do, but with thy whole heart; and as Joel 2:12. See Trapp on " Joe 2:12 " Thus Eliphaz discourseth very well and handsomely of the business in hand; only he was out in this, that he looked upon Job as an impenitent person, and upon his family as ill ordered. As, also, in that he conceived that true repentance is ever rewarded with outward and inward prosperity; whereas a penitent person may continue under crosses, though God will surely save the humble, as he saith afterwards, Job 22:29, and repentance can turn crosses into comforts; and, like the philosopher's stone, make golden afflictions, 1 Peter 1:7. As scarlet pulls out the teeth of a serpent, so this takes away the sting of a judgment. As wine draweth a nourishing virtue from the flesh of vipers, &c.