They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
Parallel translations
- WEB They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
- KJV They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
- NKJV They pass by like swift ships, Like an eagle swooping on its prey.
- NASB “They slip by like reed boats, Like an eagle that swoops on its prey.
- NLT It disappears like a swift papyrus boat, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
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 likens his swift days to fast reed boats and to an eagle diving on its prey. Life passes with startling speed.
Overview
Heaping up images of speed, Job compares his days to racing ships and a swooping eagle. The rapid, almost violent pictures convey how quickly his life is slipping away. Such reflections on the fleeting nature of life invite the godly to number their days and seek lasting hope in God (Psalm 90:12).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Hab 1:8Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.
- Isa 18:2which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.
- Prov 23:5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- 2 Sam 1:23Saul and Jonathan, beloved and delightful in life, were not divided in death. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
- Jer 4:13Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!
- Job 39:27–30Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?
- Lam 4:19Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:26 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.