Verse Lens · Context pointer
Job 23:11 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 11. 11My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Job 23:11 advances the thought unit with the words “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.” Job states “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined” as one poetic claim in Job Cannot Find God but Holds to His Way.
Read It With
- Job 23:8–23:12
Read Job 23:11 with 23:8–23:12. Read alone, “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Job searches in every direction without seeing God, yet says God knows his path and claims he has treasured divine words.
Why It Needs Context
Job 23:11 depends on 23:8–23:12; isolating “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined” would detach a poetic premise, image, response, or transition from Job and “Job Cannot Find God but Holds to His Way.”
Read Job 23:8–12 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 23:8–23:12 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Job Cannot Find God but Holds to His Way.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 8. 8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
Verse 9. 9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
Verse 10. 10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Verse 11. 11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Verse 12. 12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 23:8–23:12 — Job Cannot Find God but Holds to His WaySources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 23:8–23:12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 23:8–23:12
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗