Job 11:13

If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
prepare	הֲכִינ֣וֹתָ ha.khi.No.ta	H3559	properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
heart	לִבֶּ֑ךָ li.Be.kha	H3820	the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
stretch	וּפָרַשְׂתָּ֖ u.fa.ras.Ta	H6566	to break apart · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
hands	כַּפֶּֽךָ ka.Pe.kha	H3709	the hollow hand or palm (so of the paw of an animal · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Psalms 88:9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
Psalms 143:6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
1 Samuel 7:3 And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods an…
Psalms 78:8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was…
Job 8:5-6 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
Luke 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes…
2 Chronicles 12:14 And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.
Job 5:8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 11:13–end

Zophar, as the other two, here encourages Job to hope for better times if he would but come to a better temper. I. He gives him good counsel (Job 11:13, Job 11:14), as Eliphaz did (Job 5:8), and Bildad, Job 8:5. He would have him repent and return to God. Observe the steps of that return. 1. He must look within, and get his mind changed and the tree made good. He must prepare his heart; there the work of conversion and reformation must begin. The heart that wandered from God must be reduced - that was defiled with sin and put into disorder must be cleansed and put in order again - that was wavering and unfixed must be settled and established; so the word here signifies. The heart is then pre…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 11:13

The apodosis to the "If" is at Job 11:15. The preparation of the heart is to be obtained (Pro 16:1) by stretching out the hands in prayer for it (Psa 10:17; Ch1 29:18).

John Gill on Job 11:13

If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands towards him. In this and the following verses Zophar proceeds to give some advice to Job; which, if taken, would issue in his future happiness, but otherwise it would be ill with him; he advises him to pray to God with an heart prepared for such service; so some render the last clause in the imperative, "stretch out thine hands (w) towards him"; that is, towards God; for, though not expressed, is implied, whose immensity, sovereignty, and omniscience, Zophar had been discoursing of; and, though stretching out the hands is sometimes a gesture of persons in distress and mournful circumstances, thereby signifying their grief and sorrow, a…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Job 11:13-15

13 But if thou wilt direct thy heart, And spread out thy hands to Him - 14 If there is evil in thy hand, put it far away, And let not wickedness dwell in thy tents - 15 Then indeed canst thou lift up thy face without spot, And shalt be firm without fearing. The phrase הכין לב signifies neither to raise the heart (Ewald), nor to establish it (Hirz.), but to direct it, i.e., give it the right direction (Psa 78:8) towards God, Sa1 7:3; Ch2 20:33; it has an independent meaning, so that there is no need to supply אל־אל, nor take וּפרשׂתּ to be for לפרושׂ (after the construction in Ch2 30:19). To spread out the hands in prayer is כּפּים (פּרשׂ) פּרשׂ; ידים is seldom used instead of the more arti…

The Church Fathers

"You lift up supplicating hands to him," that he may accept your works.
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Here times are changed, and the meaning is, "If you want to obey me, open your arms in prayer to God with a pure heart, and you will never commit iniquity or transgression, and those things which Zophar mentions later will happen to you." And here it seems that Zophar is giving advice to Job, save that he himself strikes him by saying that Job is punished for his sins.
— Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 11:13-14

Zophar introduces himself as teacher and exhorts Job with the words, "Even if you are very clean, so clean that you stretch your hands continuously in prayer and ask for God's gifts, be still prepared to reject the evil that remains within you. Iniquity shall not reside in you." That means, "Even if you somehow start to do unrighteousness, iniquity shall not stay to nest in your life." Here Zophar means the following: Moral virtue must correspond to the purity of soul [and reason]. Similar to this is, "Lifting up holy hands without anger or argument." But Zophar is wrong if he deems it possible to have a pure heart and unjust deeds [at the same time]. The opposite, one could say, would be possible, namely, to have righteous deeds and an impure heart. One would thereby indicate that if someone acts mercifully with an impure heart only to be seen by the people, the deed looks the same.
— Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON JOB 11:13-14

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Prayer · Should be offered up: With preparation of heart — Should be offered up: With preparation of heart
Repentance · 4:29-31;10:16;30:1-3,8-10;32:29; — 4:29-31;10:16;30:1-3,8-10;32:29;
Steadfastness · Godliness necessary to — Godliness necessary to

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Job 11:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 11:13–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 11:13

John Gill on Job 11:13

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 11:13-15

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 11:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 11:13–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 11:13

John Gill on Job 11:13

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 11:13-15

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 11:13-14

Rashi on Job 11:13