9:25 “My days 1 are swifter than a runner, 2
they speed by without seeing happiness.
9:26 They glide by 3 like reed 4 boats,
like an eagle that swoops 5 down on its prey. 6
1 tn The text has “and my days” following the thoughts in the previous section.
2 sn Job returns to the thought of the brevity of his life (7:6). But now the figure is the swift runner instead of the weaver’s shuttle.
3 tn Heb “they flee.”
4 tn The word אֵבֶה (’eveh) means “reed, papyrus,” but it is a different word than was in 8:11. What is in view here is a light boat made from bundles of papyrus that glides swiftly along the Nile (cf. Isa 18:2 where papyrus vessels and swiftness are associated).
5 tn The verb יָטוּשׂ (yatus) is also a hapax legomenon; the Aramaic cognate means “to soar; to hover in flight.” The sentence here requires the idea of swooping down while in flight.
6 tn Heb “food.”