“If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer!
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;
- BSB As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to 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,
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 are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
- Ps 143:6I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
- 1 Sam 7:3Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to Yahweh, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
- Ps 78:8and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
- Job 8:5–6If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
- Luke 12:47That servant, who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes,
- Job 22:21–22“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.
- Ps 68:31Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.
- Job 5:8“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,
- 2 Chr 12:14He did that which was evil, because he didn’t set his heart to seek Yahweh.
- 2 Chr 19:3Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.