What is the meaning of Job 17:11? My days have passed Job speaks as a man who feels his allotted time slipping away: “My days have passed” (Job 17:11). • This is not poetic exaggeration; Job is physically spent and emotionally drained after prolonged suffering (Job 16:7–8). • He echoes an earlier lament: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope” (Job 7:6). • The brevity of life is a recurring biblical reality: “The length of our days is seventy years…for they quickly pass” (Psalm 90:10). • Job’s words remind us that our “times are in [God’s] hands” (Psalm 31:15). His sense of finality contrasts with the believer’s call to “number our days” wisely (Psalm 90:12). my plans are broken off Job continues, “my plans are broken off,” acknowledging shattered expectations. • In earlier days he pictured a secure future—children around him, prosperity continuing (Job 29:18–20). • Now those plans lie in ruins, illustrating Proverbs 19:21: “Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.” • Job’s experience foreshadows the New Testament caution, “You do not even know what tomorrow will bring…If the Lord is willing, we will live” (James 4:14–15). • The phrase “broken off” conveys abrupt, irreversible loss; yet it also implies that God alone holds the authority to interrupt human agendas (Proverbs 16:9). even the desires of my heart Finally, Job confesses that “even the desires of my heart” have collapsed. • These are the deepest longings that fuel hope—family joy, community respect, spiritual vitality. Their disappearance leaves inner emptiness (Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”). • Job’s cry anticipates the promise later revealed: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). The fulfillment, however, comes on God’s timetable, not ours. • Though Job feels stripped of every desire, the Lord is quietly steering him toward a richer understanding of divine sufficiency (2 Corinthians 4:16–18). summary Job 17:11 captures the raw ache of a believer whose life, prospects, and innermost hopes have been cut short by unforeseen suffering. His days feel finished, his plans lie in pieces, and even his heart’s desires seem dead. Yet the very Scripture that records his despair also assures us that God oversees our times, overrides our plans for His higher purpose, and ultimately satisfies the deepest desires of hearts that trust Him. |
    |