a messenger came to Job, saying, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing near them,
Then a messenger came to David saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are following Absalom.”
One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
when the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They also killed the servants with the edge of the sword—I alone escaped to tell you!”
Will you bind a wild ox to a furrow with his rope? Will it plow valleys behind you?
One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell Babylon’s king that his city has been taken from end to end.
And the messenger answered and said, “Israel fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the people. Also your two sons died—Hophni and Phinehas—and the ark of God was captured.”