Albert Barnes Commentary Job 11:13

"If thou set thy heart aright, And stretch out thy hands toward him;" — Job 11:13 (ASV)

If thou prepare thine heart - Zophar now proceeds to state that if Job still would return to God, he might hope for acceptance. Though he had sinned, and though he was now, as Zophar 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 .

And stretch out thine hands toward him - that is, 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 passage).

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 to Livy 5:21. Seneca, Ep. 41; Psalms 63:4; Psalms 134:2; Psalms 141:2; Ezra 9:5.