a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them,
A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the Israelites have gone after Absalom.”
One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house,
and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you?
One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from end to end:
The messenger replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the troops; your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”