Job 22:21

21 Make friends now with Him, so hast thou peace; Thereby good will come unto thee. 22 Receive now teaching from His mouth, And place His utterances in thy heart. 23 If thou returnest to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up again; If thou puttest away iniquity far from thy tents. 24 And lay by in the dust the gold ore, And under the pebbles of the brooks the gold of Ophir. 25 So shall the Almighty be to thee gold ore in abundance, And silver to thee of the brightest lustre. The relationship of the verbs סכן, שׁכן, and Arab. sakana, has been already discussed on Job 22:2 : the Hiph. signifies to be on friendly terms with any one; to enter into, or to stand in, an intimate relationship to any one (Psa 139:3); then also (as the Greek φιλεῖν) to get accustomed to, to be used to (Num 22:30). The second imper. is consecutive, as e.g., Pro 3:4 : and have as the result of it peace (Arab. fa'âslam) = so shalt thou have peace, Ges. 130, 2. In Job 22:21 the first thing to be done is to clear up the form תּבואתך or (according to another reading which is likewise well attested) תּבואתך. Olshausen (in Hirz. and in his Gramm.) and Rdiger (in Thes. p. 11, suppl.) explain this form the same as the other forms which come under consideration in connection with it, viz., תּבואתה (veniat), Deu 33:16, and ותּבאתי, Keri ותּבאת (et venisses, addressed to Abigail), Sa1 25:34, as errors in writing; whereas Ew., 191, c, sees in תּבואתך the erroneous form תּבואה = תּבוא with a superfluous feminine termination, in תּבואתה an extension of the double feminine by the unaccented ah of intention, and in תּבאתי a transfer of the inflexion of the perf. to the fut. Confining ourselves to the form which occurs here, we refer to what was said above: תבואתך is not a forma mixta from תּבואך and בּאתך, but th…

Methinks I can almost forgive Eliphaz his hard censures of Job, which we had in the beginning of the chapter, though they were very unjust and unkind, for this good counsel and encouragement which he gives him in these verses with which he closes his discourse, and than which nothing could be better said, nor more to the purpose. Though he thought him a bad man, yet he saw reason to have hopes concerning him, that, for all this, he would be both pious and prosperous. But it is strange that out of the same mouth, and almost in the same breath, both sweet waters and bitter should proceed. Good men, though they may perhaps be put into a heat, yet sometimes will talk themselves into a better temper, and, it may be, sooner than another could talk them into it. Eliphaz had laid before Job the miserable condition of a wicked man, that he might frighten him into repentance. Here, on the other hand, he shows him the happiness which those may be sure of that do repent, that he might allure and encourage him to it. Ministers must try both ways in dealing with people, must speak to them from Mount Sinai by the terrors of the law, and from Mount Sion by the comforts of the gospel, must set before them both life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse. Now here observe, I. The good counsel which Eliphaz gives to Job; and good counsel it is to us all, though, as to Job, it was built upon a false supposition that he was a wicked man and now a stranger and enemy to God. 1. Acquaint now thyself with God. Acquiesce in God; so some. It is our duty at all times, especially when we are in affliction, to accommodate ourselves to, and quiet ourselves in, all the disposals of the divine Providence. Join thyself to him (so some); fall in with his interests, and act no longer in oppo…