11:14 if 1 iniquity is in your hand – put it far away, 2
and do not let evil reside in your tents.
22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; 3
if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,
4:24 Remove perverse speech 4 from your mouth; 5
keep devious talk far from your lips. 6
4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, 7 for we are members of one another.
1 tn Verse 14 should be taken as a parenthesis and not a continuation of the protasis, because it does not fit with v. 13 in that way (D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 256).
2 tn Many commentators follow the Vulgate and read the line “if you put away the sin that is in your hand.” They do this because the imperative comes between the protasis (v. 13) and the apodosis (v. 15) and does not appear to be clearly part of the protasis. The idea is close to the MT, but the MT is much more forceful – if you find sin in your hand, get rid of it.
3 tc The MT has “you will be built up” (תִּבָּנֶה, tibbaneh). But the LXX has “humble yourself” (reading תְּעַנֶּה [tÿ’anneh] apparently). Many commentators read this; Dahood has “you will be healed.”
4 tn Heb “crookedness.” The noun עִקְּשׁוּת (’iqqÿshut) refers to what is morally twisted or perverted. Here it refers to things that are said (cf. NAB “dishonest talk”; NRSV “crooked speech”). The term “mouth” functions as a metonymy of cause for perverse speech. Such perverse talking could be subtle or blatant.
5 tn Heb “crookedness of mouth.”
6 tn Heb “deviousness of lips put far from you.”
7 sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.