²⁶ It disappears like a swift papyrus boat,
    like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

⁸ Their horses are swifter than cheetahs^[a]
    and fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their charioteers charge from far away.
    Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.

Go, swift messengers!
Take a message to a tall, smooth-skinned people,
    who are feared far and wide
for their conquests and destruction,
    and whose land is divided by rivers.

¹⁹ Our enemies were swifter than eagles in flight.
    If we fled to the mountains, they found us.
If we hid in the wilderness,
    they were waiting for us there.

¹³ Our enemy rushes down on us like storm clouds!
    His chariots are like whirlwinds.
His horses are swifter than eagles.
    How terrible it will be, for we are doomed!

⁵ In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,
    for it will sprout wings
    and fly away like an eagle.

²⁷ Is it at your command that the eagle rises
    to the heights to make its nest?
²⁸ It lives on the cliffs,
    making its home on a distant, rocky crag.
²⁹ From there it hunts its prey,
    keeping watch with piercing eyes.
³⁰ Its young gulp down blood.
    Where there’s a carcass, there you’ll find it.”

²³ How beloved and gracious were Saul and Jonathan!
    They were together in life and in death.
They were swifter than eagles,
    stronger than lions.