Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 30:7
Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
7. they brayed ] Rather, they bray.
were gathered ] Better, are gathered, or perhaps rather, stretch themselves, i. e. fling themselves down. Their cries are like those of the wild ass seeking for food (ch. Job 6:5), and they throw themselves down like wild beasts under the bushes in the desert.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Among the bushes – Coverdale, Upon the dry heath went they about crying. The Hebrew word is the same which occurs in Job 30:4, and means bushes in general. They were heard in the shrubbery that grew in the desert.
They brayed – yinahaqu. The Vulgate renders this, They were concealed. The Septuagint, Amidst sweet sounds they cry out. Noyes, They utter their cries. The Hebrew word properly means to bray. It occurs only here and in Job 6:5, where it is applied to the ass. The sense here is, that the voices of this vagrant and wretched multitude was heard in the desert like the braying of asses.
Under the nettles – Dr. Good, Under the briers. Prof. Lee, Beneath the broom-pea. Noyes, Under the thorns. The Hebrew word charul, occurs only here and in Zep 2:9, and Pro 24:31, in each of which places it is rendered nettles. It is probably derived from = , to burn, to glow, and is given to nettles from the burning or prickling sensation which they produce. Either the word nettles, thistles, or thorns, would sufficiently answer to its derivation. It does not occur in the Arabic. Castell. Umbreit renders it, unter Dornen – under thorns.
They were gathered together – Vulgate, They accounted it a delicacy to be in a thorn-hedge. The word used here ( saphach) means to add; and then to be added or assembled together. The idea is, that they were huddled together quite promiscuously in the wild-growing bushes of the desert. They had no home; no separate habitation. This description is interesting, not only as denoting the depth to which Job had been reduced when he was the object of contempt by such vagrants, but as illustrative of a state of society existing then.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. Among the bushes they brayed] They cried out among the bushes, seeking for food, as the wild ass when he is in want of provender. Two MSS. read yinaku, they groaned, instead of yinhaku, they brayed.
Under the nettles] charul, the briers or brambles, under the brushwood in the thickest parts of the underwood; they huddled together like wild beasts.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They brayed, like the wild asses, Job 6:5, for hunger or thirst.
Under the nettles, which seem not proper for that use. This Hebrew word is used but twice in Scripture, and it is acknowledged both by Jewish and Christian writers, that the signification of the Hebrew words which express plants, or beasts, or stones, &c. is very uncertain; and therefore this is by others, and may well be, understood of some kind of thorns; and so this is the same thing with the bushes in the former branch of the verse, under which they hid themselves, that they might not be discovered when they were sought out for justice.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. brayedlike the wild ass(Job 6:5 for food). Theinarticulate tones of this uncivilized rabble are but little abovethose of the beast of the field.
gathered togetherrather,sprinkled here and there. Literally, “poured out,”graphically picturing their disorderly mode of encampment, lying upand down behind the thorn bushes.
nettlesor brambles[UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Among the bushes they brayed,…. Like wild asses; so Sephorno, to which wicked men are fitly compared, Job 11:12; or they “cried”, or “groaned” m, and “moaned” among the bushes, where they lay lurking; either they groaned through cold, or want of food; for the wild ass brays not but when in want, Job 6:5;
under the nettles they were gathered together; or “under thistles” n, as some, or “under thorns”, as o others; under thorn hedges, where they lay either for shelter, or to hide themselves, or to seize upon a prey that might pass by; and so were such sort of persons as in the parable in Lu 14:23; it not being usual for nettles to grow so high as to cover persons, at least they are not a proper shelter, and much less an eligible one; though some render the words, they were “pricked” p, blistered and wounded, a word derived from this being used for the scab of leprosy, Le 13:6; and so pustules and blisters are raised by the sting of nettles: the Targum is,
“under thorns they were associated together;”
under thorn hedges, as before observed; and if the juniper tree is meant in Job 30:4, they might be said to be gathered under thorns when under that; since, as Pliny q says, it has thorns instead of leaves; and the shadow of it, according to the poet r, is very noxious and disagreeable.
m “clamabant”, Vatablus, Mercerus; so Ben Gerson; “gemebant”, Michaelis; so Broughton. n “sub carduis”, Vatablus. o “Sub sentibus”, V. L. “sub vepreto aliquo”, Tigurine version; “sub vepribus”, Cocceius; “sub spina”, Noldius, p. 193. Schultens. p “pungebantur”, Junius Tremellius “se ulcerant”, Gussetius, p. 565. so Ben Gersom; “they smarted”, Broughton. q Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 24. r “Juniperi gravis umbra—-” Virgil. Bucolic. Eclog. 10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(7) Among the bushes they brayed.Herodotus says their language was like the screeching of bats, others say it was like the whistling of birds. This whole description is of the mockers of Job, and therefore should be in the present tense in Job. 30:5; Job. 30:7-8, as it may be in the Authorised Version of Job. 30:4.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Brayed Their inarticulate notes sounded like those of the ass, Job 24:5. Herodotus (iv, 183) compares the language of the Troglodyte Ethiopian to the screech of the night-owl. The bray which Job deftly imputes to this human rabble tells the genus to which, in his estimate, they belong.
Nettles Denoted probably some kind of thistle or thorn, (Rosenmuller;) according to others, some species of wild mustard.
They were gathered together The Arabic seems to justify Taylor Lewis (compare Gesenius, Thes., s.v.) in rendering , herd together like beasts. In illustration of meaning, consult Herodotus 1:216, and Larcher’s “Notes on Herodotus,” vol. i, page 196.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 30:7. They brayed They made their moan, or cried out. Heath and Houbigant. The latter part of the verse may be rendered, Among the nettles were they … {tormented, Hiller, par. 2: p. 196 con.} / {burned, Noldius, 919.} See the Observations, p. 85.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 30:7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
Ver. 7. Among the bushes they brayed ] Through grief and discontent at their low condition and many miseries; which yet they would rather bootlessly bewail than take a right course to remedy. They lust, and have not; they kill (themselves through idleness), and desire to have (if it would come without labour), but cannot obtain, Jas 4:2 . And hence they bray like the wild ass when empty, and roar as the lion when bitten with hunger.
Under the nettles they were gathered together
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
brayed: Job 6:5, Job 11:12, Gen 16:12
the nettles: Charul probably denotes some kind of briar or bramble, so Vulgate renders it by spina or sentis, (Pro 24:31. Zep 2:9). Celsius and Scheuchzer are inclined to think it the paliurus, a shrub growing sometimes to a considerable height in desert places. “One of the inconveniences of the vegetable thickets of Egypt is,” says Denon, “that it is difficult to remain in them, as nine tenths of the trees and plants are armed with inexorable thorns, which suffer only an unquiet enjoyment of the shadow which is so constantly desirable.
Reciprocal: Mat 27:44 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 30:7. Among the bushes they brayed Like the wild asses, (Job 6:5,) for hunger or thirst. They brayed, seems to be an improper translation here; because, though , nahak, signifies to bray, when applied to an ass, yet when spoken of men in difficult circumstances, as in this verse, we should rather say with the Targum and LXX., they sighed, cried out, or made their moan. So Heath and Houbigant render it. Under the nettles they were gathered The word , charul, here rendered nettles, is by some translated thorns, or thistles, the nettle being too small a plant, as Bochart observes, for men to gather themselves under. Dr. Waterland, however, renders it, Among the nettles were they tormented, or burned. The meaning is, that they hid themselves under the thorns, or among the nettles, that they might not be discovered when they were sought out for justice.