Job 9:25
in Job 9My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now my days are swifter than a post: They flee away, they see no good.
KJV
Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
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This verse in Job 9
Commentary
10 notes on this verseNow my days are swifter than a post: they are fled away, they have seen no good. For the business of a post is to tell what is coming after; and so all of the Elect that were born before the coming of the Redeemer, in that either by mode of life only, or by word of mouth likewise, they bore tidings of Him, were like a kind of post in the world.
This site's exposition
My days are swifter than a runner
on Job 9:25-31
"My days are swifter than a runner" returns to the speed of life. Resolving to "forget my complaint" brings no comfort, since "I would still dread all my sufferings". Even "If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye," God would plunge him "into the pit".
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
The swift runner does not appear to touch the ground; he appears as though he has wings. [Job says], " 'My life is swifter than a runner.' I look at what is above. 'I do not run aimlessly.' I do not touch the ground." Because …
He means, "My memories themselves are dead, and I don't even know what I am talking about, as my pain is so great! In the moment itself, in which I speak, I forget, as the storm around me is so strong!"
The Medieval Church1 voice
To investigate the reason why the innocent are punished in this world, he first proposes the harm which he has experienced in the loss of his goods, and shows the fickleness of the present prosperity using a simile with those things which appear most fleeting …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): " My days (that is, all my good days) are gone, never to return, gone of a sudden, gone ere I was aware. Never did any courier that went express" (like Cushi and Ahimaaz) "with good tidings make such haste as all my comforts did from me.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
Now my days are swifter than a post,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Now my days are swifter than a post - Than a courier, runner, or racer, רוּץ rûts. Vulgate, cursore; Septuagint, δρομέως dromeōs, a racer. The word is not unfrequently applied to the runners or couriers, that carried royal commands in ancient times. It is applied to the mounted couriers of the Persians who carried the royal edicts to the distant provinces, Est 3:13, Est 3:15; Est 8:14, and to the body-guard and royal messengers of Saul and of David, 1Sa 22:17; 2Ki 10:25. The common rate of traveling in the East is exceedingly slow.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
In the wide Persian empire such couriers, on dromedaries or on foot, were employed to carry the royal commands to the distant provinces (Es 3:13, 15; "My days" are not like the slow caravan, but the fleet post. The "days" are themselves poetically said to "see no good," instead of Job in them (1Pe 3:10).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Swifter than a post - מני רץ minni rats, than a runner. The light-footed messenger or courier who carries messages from place to place. They flee away - The Chaldee says, My days are swifter than the shadow of a flying bird. So swiftly do they flee away that I cannot discern them; and when past they cannot be recalled. There is a sentiment like this in Virgil, Geor. lib. iii., ver. 284: - Sed Fugit interea, Cubit Irreparabile tempus! - “But in the meanwhile time flies! irreparable time flies away!”
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְיָמַ֣י | veyamai | and days my | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| קַ֭לּוּ | kalu | they have been swift | H7043 → | 82 times |
| מִנִּי־ | mini- | more than | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| רָ֑ץ | ratz | a runner | H7323 → | 103 times |
| בָּֽ֝רְח֗וּ | barechu | they have fled | H1272 → | 63 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| רָא֥וּ | rau | they have seen | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| טוֹבָֽה׃ | tovah | good | H2896 → | 538 times |
וְיָמַ֣יand days my
veyamaiH3117 →2304 times
קַ֭לּוּthey have been swift
kaluH7043 →82 times
מִנִּי־more than
mini-H4480 →1188 times
רָ֑ץa runner
ratzH7323 →103 times
בָּֽ֝רְח֗וּthey have fled
barechuH1272 →63 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
רָא֥וּthey have seen
rauH7200 →1300 times
טוֹבָֽה׃good
tovahH2896 →538 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 4:14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- Psalms 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- 1 John 2:17
The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.
- Psalms 102:3
For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
- Job 7:6–7
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
- 1 Peter 1:24
Through
Psalms 39:11You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
it leads to
- Job 13:28
So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.
- Isaiah 50:9
Surely the Lord GOD helps Me. Who is there to condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moths will devour them.
- Hebrews 12:6
For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”
- Job 13:28
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON JOB 9:25-26; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 9:25-27; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.