Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
The book containing this verse is a poem whose meaning is best understood by reading the book as a whole. It addresses the great problems of overruling providence, and sin and suffering. In it God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction while his three friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin.
The verse stands in the second of four parts of the book, the debate between Job and his three friends on the subject of his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31, consisting of three circles of speeches by each. More immediately, it is part of Job's answer to Bildad's first speech, in which Bildad exhorts to humility and Job answers that afflictions are no proof of sin.
The verse compares the brevity of human life to things that pass swiftly away, with the post as a swift messenger expressing how quickly the days pass and flee away. To see no good means life brings no lasting good before it is gone, passing before its good or beauty can be fully enjoyed. The fleeing of the days is echoed by other fleeting images of clouds and vapor, an arrow in flight, winter grass, and a flower that fades soon after blooming.
The verse is one of several biblical images showing that life is short, uncertain, and easily ended, so that a person may die at any moment. It teaches readers not to misjudge fellow sufferers in the way Job's friends did.
The book containing this verse is a poem whose meaning is best understood by reading the book as a whole. It addresses the great problems of overruling providence, and sin and suffering. In it God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction while his three friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin.
The verse stands in the second of four parts of the book, the debate between Job and his three friends on the subject of his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31, consisting of three circles of speeches by each. More immediately, it is part of Job's answer to Bildad's first speech, in which Bildad exhorts to humility and Job answers that afflictions are no proof of sin.
The verse compares the brevity of human life to things that pass swiftly away, with the post as a swift messenger expressing how quickly the days pass and flee away. To see no good means life brings no lasting good before it is gone, passing before its good or beauty can be fully enjoyed. The fleeing of the days is echoed by other fleeting images of clouds and vapor, an arrow in flight, winter grass, and a flower that fades soon after blooming.
The verse is one of several biblical images showing that life is short, uncertain, and easily ended, so that a person may die at any moment. It teaches readers not to misjudge fellow sufferers in the way Job's friends did.