How fast is a day? Job answers with a picture from his own world: “my days are swifter than a post.” A post was a messenger, and the book of Esther shows what one could carry. Letters went out “by posts into all the king’s provinces” with a decree to destroy the Jews in a single day. Later, when the king writes again in his own name, riders on horseback, mules and camels carry the new decree, “hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment.” The same speed carries grief in one chapter and relief in another. Esther 3 and Esther 8 are worth reading side by side.
5 verses
And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed.
And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries:
So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace.
Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
(1.) A runner, or courier, for the rapid transmission of letters, etc. (2 Chr. 30:6; Esther 3:13, 15; 8:10, 14; Job 9:25; Jer. 51:31). Such messengers were used from very early times. Those employed by the Hebrew kings had a military character (1 Sam. 22:17; 2 Kings 10:25, “guard,” marg. “runners”). The modern system of postal communication was first established by Louis XI. of France in A.D. 1464.
(2.) This word sometimes also is used for lintel or threshold (Isa. 6:4).
William Smith, 1884
(1.) Probably, as Gesenius argues, the door-case of a door, including the lintel and side posts. The posts of the doors of the temple were of olive wood. (1 Kings 6:33)
(2.) A courier or carrier of messages, used among other places in (Job 9:25)