Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 11:13 - 11:13

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 11:13 - 11:13


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

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 הֵכִין לֵב 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, 1Sa 7:3; 2Ch 20:33; it has an independent meaning, so that there is no need to supply אֶל־אֵל, nor take וּפָרַשְׂתָּ to be for לפרושׂ (after the construction in 2Ch 30:19). To spread out the hands in prayer is כַּפַּיִם (פֵּרֵשׂ) פָּרַשׂ; ידים is seldom used instead of the more artistic כפים, palmas, h.e. manus supinas. The conditional antecedent clause is immediately followed, Job 11:14, by a similarly conditional parenthetical clause, which inserts the indispensable condition of acceptable prayer; the conclusion might begin with הַרְהִיקֵהוּ: when thou sendest forth thy heart and spreadest out thy hands to Him, if there is wickedness in thy hand, put it far away; but the antecedent requires a promise for its conclusion, and the more so since the praet. and fut. which follow אִם, Job 11:13, have the force of futt. exact.: si disposueris et extenderis, to which the conclusion: put it far away, is not suited, which rather expresses a preliminary condition of acceptable prayer. The conclusion then begins with כִּי־אָז, then indeed, like Job 8:6; Job 13:19, comp. Job 6:3, with עַתָּה כִּי, now indeed; the causal signification of כי has in both instances passed into the confirmatory (comp. 1Sa 14:44; Psa 118:10-12; Psa 128:2, and on Gen 26:22): then verily wilt thou be able to raise thy countenance (without being forced to make any more bitter complaints, as Job 10:15.), without spot, i.e., not: without bodily infirmity, but: without spot of punishable guilt, sceleris et paenae (Rosenmüller). מִן here signifies without (Targ. דְּלָא), properly: far from, as Job 21:9; 2Sa 1:22; Pro 20:3. Faultless will he then be able to look up and be firm (מֻצָּק from יָצַק, according to Ges. §71), quasi ex aere fusus (1Ki 7:16), one whom God can no longer get the better of.