They pass by like swift ships, Like an eagle swooping 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.
- BSB They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down 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 also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
- Isa 18:2that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!”
- Prov 23:5Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- 2 Sam 1:23Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. In their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions.
- Jer 4:13Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.
- Job 39:27–30Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?
- Lam 4:19Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for 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.