Job 11:13

If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands towards him.

If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him. The apodosis to the "If" is at Job 11:15.

O Job, thy business is not to quarrel with thy Maker, or his works, but to address thyself to him. Prepare thine heart, to wit, to seek God, as it is expressed, 30:19 . If thou prepare thy heart by sincere repentance for all thy hard speeches of God, and sins against him, and with a pure and upright heart seek unto him; without which thy prayers will be in vain. Or, If thou directest, or rectifiest, thine heart, turning thy bold contentions with God into humble and sincere supplications to him. Stretch out thine hands, i.e. pray, which is here described by its usual gesture; as . Towards him, i.e. to God, as appears both from the nature of the thing, and from the context.

Job 11:13 If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;Ver. 13. If thou prepare thine heart] viz. To meet God, Amos 4:12, humbly submitting to his justice, and heartily imploring his mercy. The sum of what Zophar saith in the following verses is this: If thou truly repent, thou shall prosper; as if not, thou shall perish. This he might have said more fitly to most of us, who are deeply guilty, saith Lavater, than to Job, who was nothing so sinful as we are, and yet much more penitent. But Zophar calls upon him to quarrel with his faults, and not with his friends, and to break off his sins by repentance, without which, if he should have peace, it would be but like those short interims between the Egyptian plagues. And stretch out thine hands toward him] Heb. And spread thy palms to him: so in prayer for pardon of sin and power against sin; for this stretching out, or spreading of the hands, is a prayer gesture, wherein God’ s people come forma pauperis, holding out the hand to receive mercy, as beggars do an alms; or as men beg quarter for their lives with hands held up; or, lastly, as he that is fallen into a ditch, or deep pit, and cannot get out, lifteth up his hands, and crieth out for help. See Exodus 17:11-12 Leviticus 9:22 1 Kings 8:22 Psalms 141:2. It appeareth that the ancients prayed not with their hands joined together or a little way lifted up, but with their arms stretched abroad, and the palms of their hands turned up towards heaven.

Verse 13. If thou prepare thine heart] Make use of the powers which God has given thee, and be determined to seek him with all thy soul. And stretch out thine hands toward him] Making fervent prayer and supplication, putting away iniquity out of thy hand, and not permitting wickedness to dwell in thy tabernacle; then thou shalt lift up thy face without a blush, thou wilt become established, and have nothing to fear, Job 11:14-15. There is a sentiment in Proverbs 16:1, very similar to that in the 13th verse, which we translate very improperly: - לאדם מערכי לב leadam maarchey leb. To man are the preparations of the heart: ומהוה מענה לשון umeyehovah maaneh lashon. But from Jehovah is the answer to the tongue. It is man's duty to pray; it is God's prerogative to answer. Zophar, like all the rest, is true to his principle. Job must be a wicked man, else he had not been afflicted. There must be some iniquity in his hand, and some wickedness tolerated in his family. So they all supposed.

13–20. Zophar turns to Job in exhortation and promise.

If thou prepare thine heart - Zophar now proceeds to state that if Job even yet would return to God, he might hope for acceptance.

Third division, in three strophes: AN TO AND NEWNESS OF LIFE, Job 11:13-20.a. Repentance toward God, and the putting away of sin, are the conditions of spiritual confidence and security, Job 11:13-15.13.