to fly
uph describes flight through the air, and in some contexts becoming weary or passing swiftly away.
The term most often describes movement through the air by birds and other flying figures, including a cherub, seraphim, an arrow, and a scroll. In contexts of loss or transience it marks swift departure, while several narrative clauses associate its sequential imperfect form with people becoming faint or weary.
Senses in use
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Moving through the air · dominant
The forms describe aerial movement in clauses about birds crossing the heavens in Genesis 1:20, a cherub in 2 Samuel 22:11, and seraphim in Isaiah 6:2 and Isaiah 6:6. The same usage extends to an arrow in Psalm 91:5 and to the scroll seen in Zechariah 5:1, where the APB renders it as a “flying scroll.”
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Passing away or escaping swiftly · common
In Hosea 9:11, the Hithpolel imperfect occurs in the clause where Ephraim’s glory departs “from birth and from womb and from conception.” Job 20:8 compares a person’s disappearance to a dream, Psalm 90:10 places the first-person plural form after life is quickly cut off, and Proverbs 23:5 uses repeated forms in the image of wealth making wings and going to heaven.
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Becoming faint or weary · occasional
Sequential imperfect forms occur where the APB says the people “grew faint” after the oath in 1 Samuel 14:28, were “utterly exhausted” after striking the Philistines in 1 Samuel 14:31, and where David “grew weary” during battle in 2 Samuel 21:15. These clauses show a non-aerial use associated with depleted strength.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the aerial contexts, the APB commonly uses “fly,” “flew,” or “flying,” including birds, a cherub, seraphim, an arrow, and a scroll. In the weariness passages it instead renders the surrounding clauses with “grew faint,” “utterly exhausted,” and “grew weary”; These renderings indicate the verse context rather than a fixed English equivalent.