Job 17:11 (KJV)

What does Job 17:11 mean?

Job 17:11 expresses Job’s sense that his life is running out and that the plans he once held dear have come to an end. He speaks as someone who can no longer see a future in which those plans will be carried out.

Job is speaking in the midst of a conversation with his friends about his suffering. The phrase “thoughts of my heart” brings the loss close to home: his purposes were not merely tasks on a list, but things he had formed within himself.

The Hebrew behind Job 17:11

• “purposes” — זִמָּה (zimmah): This word can refer to a plan or intention. Here it points to what Job had intended to do, not simply to passing ideas.
• “thoughts” — מוֹרָשׁ (morash): This rare word is often understood to refer to possessions or cherished things. In “thoughts of my heart,” the KJV presents them as Job’s inward thoughts; the underlying image suggests something held dear.
• “heart” — לֵבָב (levav): The word can refer to a person’s inner life, including thought and intention. Job’s “heart” is therefore the place where he has formed and treasured his purposes.

Why Job 17:11 matters

• Job describes his purposes as forcibly interrupted, not merely forgotten. “Broken off” gives his loss the sense of something cut short.
• The verse sets Job’s outlook against the hopeful words around him. In verse 12, he says that others turn night into day and speak of light as near; verse 11 helps explain why that brightness seems so far from his own experience.