John Trapp on Job 11:13

Verſe 13. If thou prepare thine heart] viz. to meet God, Amos 4.12. humbly ſubmitting to his juſtice, and heartily imploring his mercy. The ſumme of what Zophar ſaith in the following verſes, is this; if thou truely repent, thou ſhalt proſper: as if not, thou ſhalt periſh: this he might have ſaid more fitly to moſt of us, who are deeply guilty (ſaith Lavater) then to Job, who was nothing ſo ſinful as we are, and yet much more penitent. But Zophar calls upon him to quarrel with his faults, and not with his friends, and to break off his ſins by repentance; without which, if he ſhould have peace, it would be but like thoſe ſhort interims between the Egyptian plagues.

And ſtretch out thine hands towards him] Heb. And ſpread thy palmes to him: ſo in prayer for pardon of ſin, and power againſt ſin: for this ſtretching out, or ſpreading of the hands, is a prayer-geſture, wherein Gods people come formâ pauperis, holding out the hand to receive mercy, as beggars do an alms: or as men beg quarter for their lives with hands held up: or laſtly, as he that is faln into a ditch, or deep pit, and cannot get out, lifteth up his hands, and cryeth out for help. See Exod. 17.11, 12. and 19.29. 1 Kings 8.22. Pſalm 141.2. It appeareth that the Ancients prayed not with their hands joyned together, or a little way lifted up, but with their arms ſtretcht abroad, and the palms of their hands turned up towards heaven.