What Does Job 17:11 Mean?
My days cross over, my plans are torn loose, even the possessions of my heart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.THE KEY
The root behind “broken off” also describes breaking a yoke: the same image names both the severing of Job’s plans and the breaking of what constrains a person.
THE MEANING
When your days feel spent, the future you had imagined can feel cut loose before it arrives. This verse lets that collapse be spoken plainly, without pretending its resolution is already visible.
THE ROOT
נִתְּקוּ
nittequ
GROWS FROM
נתק
nataq
to sever, detach, tear away
“torn loose” in this verse is nittequ. The verb comes from נתק (nataq), “to sever or detach.” Job’s purposes are not merely inactive; the word pictures them as cut loose, an image the same root uses for breaking a yoke.
ALSO GROWS
nataq: to tear away, sever
נָתַק
This basic verb shows the force of Job’s phrase: his purposes have been torn from the future he imagined.
tenattequ: you break apart, sever
תְּנַתֵּקוּ
Isaiah uses this form for breaking every yoke, showing that this root’s severing can also describe a constraint being broken.
זִמֹּתַי
zimotai
GROWS FROM
זמם
zamam
to plan, devise
“plans” in this verse is zimotai. This root names formed designs, not vague wishes. Its related nouns can mean a plan or device, so Job’s grief reaches the future he had actually conceived.
ALSO GROWS
zamam: to plan, devise
זָמַם
The verb gives “purposes” the weight of something deliberately formed in the mind.
zimmah: a plan, device, or scheme
זִמָּה
This related noun shows how the same root carries the idea of a conceived design; here, that design has been cut short.
mezimmah: a plan, intention, or device
מְזִמָּה
This branch makes clear that the verse is grieving over intentions that had taken shape, not merely over a passing mood.
עָבְרוּ
avaru
GROWS FROM
עבר
avar
to pass across, cross over
The verb translated “past” comes from עבר (avar), “to pass or cross over.” The days are pictured as already traversed, and the severing of Job’s plans follows immediately.
ALSO GROWS
avar: to pass, cross over
עָבַר
This base verb makes the movement inside “past” visible: the days have gone across and beyond.
ma'avar: a passage, crossing
מַעֲבָר
This related noun keeps the root’s crossing image, echoing Job’s sense that his time has moved beyond reach.
ever: the other side, beyond
עֵבֶר
This branch names what lies across or beyond, adding spatial depth to the verse’s sense of days already gone.
THE PATTERN
Human plans do not guarantee their own completion; Scripture places intention beside the limits of life.
His breath goes out; he returns to his ground. In that very day his plans lose their way.You do not know what tomorrow holds. For what is your life? You are a mist, showing itself for a little while, and then made unseen.Many plans are in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the LORD, it will stand.THE THREAD
Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?Job’s “broken off” and Isaiah’s “break every yoke” draw on נתק (nataq), “to sever or detach.” Job names what has been torn from within; Isaiah uses the same severing image for a yoke being broken.
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