Job 11:13

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹³ "If you set your heart aright, Stretch out your hands toward him. ¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, Don't let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. ¹⁵ Surely then shall you lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear: ¹⁶ For you shall forget your misery; You shall remember it as waters that are passed away, ¹⁷ Life shall be clearer than the noonday; Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning. ¹⁸ You shall be secure, because there is hope; Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety. ¹⁹ Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; Yes, many shall court your favor. ²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, They shall have no way to flee; Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

prepare: Job 5:8, Job 8:5, Job 8:6, Job 22:21, Job 22:22, 1 Samuel 7:3, 2 Chronicles 12:14, 2 Chronicles 19:3, Psalms 78:8, Luke 12:47

stretch: Psalms 68:31, Psalms 88:9, Psalms 143:6

Reciprocal: Exodus 9:29 - spread 1 Kings 8:22 - General 2 Chronicles 6:12 - spread forth 2 Chronicles 30:19 - prepareth Ezra 7:10 - prepared Job 15:11 - the consolations Job 22:23 - return Job 36:11 - spend Psalms 44:20 - stretched Psalms 126:6 - that goeth Proverbs 3:25 - Be Isaiah 1:16 - Wash Lamentations 3:40 - search

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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, and of others in great danger, in order to lay up anything for safety; and of conquered persons resigning themselves up into the hands of the conqueror; and of such who are desirous of being in friendship, alliance, and association with others; yet it is also sometimes used as for the whole of religious worship, Psalms 44:20; so particularly for prayer, Psalms 88:9; and this was what all Job's friends advised him to, to humble himself before God, to pray for the forgiveness of his sins, and for the removal of his afflictions and deliverance from them; see Job 5:8; in order to which it is proper the "heart [should be] prepared"; as it is requisite it should be to every good work by the grace of God so to this: and then may it be said to be prepared for such service, when the spirit of God is given as a spirit of grace and supplication, whereby the heart is impressed with a sense of its wants, and so knows what to pray for; and arguments and fit words are put into the mind and mouth, and it knows how to pray as it should; and is enabled to approach the throne of grace with sincerity, fervency, and in the exercise of faith, being sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Jesus, and resigned to the divine will, in all its petitions it is directed to make: now this is the work of God, to prepare the heart; the preparation of the heart, as well as the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord; he is prayed to for it, and it is affirmed he will do it,

Proverbs 16:1; but it is here represented as if it was man's act, which is said not to suggest any power in man to do it of himself; at least this is not the evangelic sense of such phrases; for Zophar might be of a more legal spirit, and not so thoroughly acquainted with the evangelic style; but this might be said, to show the necessity of such a preparation, and to stir up to a concern for it, and to expect and look for it from and by the grace of God.

w "Expande ad eum manus tuas", De Dieu.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If thou prepare thine heart - Zophar now proceeds to state that if Job even yet would return to God, he might hope for acceptance. Though he had sinned, and though he was now, as he supposed, a hollow-hearted and an insincere man, yet, if he would repent, he might expect the divine favor. In this he accords with the sentiment of Eliphaz, and he concludes his speech in a manner not a little resembling his; see Job 5:17-27.

And stretch out thine hands toward him - In the attitude of supplication. To stretch out or spread forth the hands, is a phrase often used to denote the act of supplication; see 1 Timothy 2:8, and the notes of Wetstein on that place. Horace, 3 Carm. xxiii. 1, Coelo supinas si tuleris manus. Ovid, M. ix. 701, Ad sidera supplex Cressa manus tollens. Trist. i. 10, 21, Ipsc gubernator, tollens ad sidera palmas; compare Livy v. 21. Seneca, Ep. 41; Psalms 63:4; Psalms 134:2; Psalms 141:2; Ezra 9:5.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 11:13. 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.