If Job put iniquity away, would his troubles end?

Zophar says so: "If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away" (11:14), "Surely then you will lift up your face without spot" (11:15), "for you will forget your misery" (11:16). Other Scripture calls people to come to God with wrong put away: "Who may ascend to the LORD’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:3-4), and "Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes" (Isaiah 1:16). Eliphaz and Bildad say the like to Job: "If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents" (22:23), and "If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you" (8:6). But the book had told you, before any of the speeches, that Job "was blameless and upright" (1:1), and that the LORD said to Satan, "you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause" (2:3). And it tells you what came before the end of his troubles: Job's last words to the LORD, "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (42:6); the LORD's words to the friends (42:7-8); and then "The LORD restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends" (42:10). The book sets these side by side without comment. These notes don't make Zophar's if a rule for anyone's suffering today.