“My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away without a glimpse of happiness.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good.
- KJV Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
- BSB My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
- NKJV “Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good.
- NASB ¶“Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job returns to lamenting that his days race by faster than a runner, fleeing without any good. Life rushes toward its end joylessly.
Overview
Shifting from the problem of justice back to his own brevity, Job compares his fleeting days to a swift runner. His remaining time speeds past empty of good. This recurring theme of life's brevity (Job 7:6) underscores his urgency and despair, while quietly pressing toward the hope of a good that outlasts these fleeting days.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 7:6–7My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- Jas 4:14Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
- Ps 90:9–10For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
- Ps 39:5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
- Ps 89:47Remember how short my time is! For what vanity have you created all the children of men!
- Ps 39:11When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
- Esth 8:14So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 9:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.