As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
Parallel translations
- WEB “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
- KJV If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;
- NKJV “If you would prepare your heart, And stretch out your hands toward Him;
- NASB ¶“If you would direct your heart rightly And spread out your hands to Him,
- NLT “If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Zophar urges Job to set his heart right and stretch out his hands to God. He begins his appeal for repentance.
Overview
Zophar calls Job to prepare his heart and lift his hands in prayer toward God, the posture of contrition and supplication. The counsel sounds pious, yet it wrongly assumes Job's suffering stems from unrepented sin. The call to seek God with the heart is good, but the gospel reminds us that true repentance and right standing are God's gracious gift, not a bargaining chip (Joel 2:13; Acts 5:31).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 88:9My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
- Ps 143:6I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- 1 Sam 7:3Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
- Ps 78:8Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
- Job 8:5–6But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,
- Luke 12:47That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows.
- Job 22:21–22Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you.
- Ps 68:31Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.
- Job 5:8However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and lay my cause before Him—
- 2 Chr 12:14And Rehoboam did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.
- 2 Chr 19:3However, some good is found in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles from the land and have set your heart on seeking God.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 11:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.