Job 9:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

As the swift ships, &c.— There are but two places that I remember, says Mr. Peters, in the book of Job, where there is any allusion to navigation. One in the present passage, where Job compares the course of human life, and the rapidity wherewith it passes, to the swift ships, [swiftest ships, most excellent for sailing, Houbigant,] or, as it is in the margin of our English Bibles, ships of desire; i.e. such as are longed for, and long to be at their destined port, and crowd all the sail they can for that purpose. This gives, indeed, a very poetical image. But, if we will take the judgment of Schultens, he tells us, it ought rather to be rendered, ships of cane, or the Papyrus; i.e. such light vessels as they used in passing the river Nile, and other great rivers and arms of the sea. This, no doubt, was the first essay made by mankind towards navigation, and, perhaps, the utmost that their skill had reached in Job's time. See chap. Job 28:4 and Peters.