Bible Strands
Job 9:26
They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God directly in a soliloquy about human vulnerability, speaking immediately after describing his days as fleeing faster than a runner.
The words — חָלְפוּ (chal.fu) translates literally to "they have passed on," while יָטוּשׂ (ya.tus) denotes the specific action of "it rushes" or "swoops" upon its food.
The thread — The motif of rapid, unavoidable pursuit appears in Habakkuk 1:8 with leopards and wolves, Isaiah 18:2 with papyrus vessels, and 2 Samuel 1:23 with eagles.
Why it lands — The text describes life and judgment as moving with inescapable speed, requiring the reader to confront the futility of delaying repentance or expecting a prolonged window for defense.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
Cross-references
- Habakkuk 1:8 Their 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.
- Isaiah 18:2 which 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.
- 2 Samuel 1:23 Saul and Jonathan, beloved and delightful in life, were not divided in death. They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.
- Job 39:27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?
- Proverbs 23:5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- Jeremiah 4:13 Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!
- Lamentations 4:19 Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness.