Job 30:7

(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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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] Or they were pricked, whealed, as we call it. Urtica ab urendo, they were nettle stung, while they got under those weeds for shelter and warmth. All this Job relateth of those that derided him; not to be even with them, or out of a desire to disparage them, but to aggravate the indignity of his misusage, and to comfort himself, as Seneca in like case did: Male de me loquuntur, sed mali, They speak evil of me, but who are they? base persons, and wicked above measure; and oh how easy a thing it is to wag a wicked tongue! especially when the devil hath the doing of it, as he hath in this kind of men qui revera os aperiunt, et diabolum loqui sinunt, whose mouth the devil borroweth to vent the language of hell by (Lavater).

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 נהק, 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 חרול, 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

brayed--like the wild ass (Job 6:5 for food). The inarticulate tones of this uncivilized rabble are but little above those of the beast of the field.

gathered together--rather, sprinkled here and there. Literally, "poured out," graphically picturing their disorderly mode of encampment, lying up and down behind the thorn bushes.

nettles--or brambles [UMBREIT].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 ינאקו yinaku, they groaned, instead of ינהקו yinhaku, they brayed.

Under the nettles] חרול charul, the briers or brambles, under the brushwood in the thickest parts of the underwood; they huddled together like wild beasts.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Luk 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, Lev 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 - ינהקו yinâhaqû. 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 חרול chârûl, 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 חרל = חרר, 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 (ספח sâphach) 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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Pleased. Hebrew, "brayed." (Calmet) --- Briars. Protestants, "nettles." They were driven from the society of men and forced to abscond. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 יספחו, herd together like beasts. In illustration of meaning, consult Herodotus 1:216, and Larcher’s “Notes on Herodotus,” vol. i, page 196.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Among the bushes they brayed. The sounds which came from their mouths sounded to Job less like articulate speech than like the braying of asses. Compare what Herodotus says of his Troglodytes: "Their language is unlike that of any other people; it sounds like the screeching of bats." Under the nettles (or, wild vetches) they were gathered together; rather, huddled together.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brayed - Like the wild asses, for hunger or thirst. Thorns - Under which they hide themselves, that they might not be discovered when they are sought out for justice.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Connecting Statement:

Job continues to talk about the fathers of the mockers.

brayed like donkeys

Job speaks of the men crying out in hunger as if they were wild donkeys making a loud noise. AT: "cried out like wild donkeys because they were hungry" (See: Simile)

they gathered together under the nettles

"Nettles" are bushes with sharp thorns. This implies that they did not have a home.

They were the sons of fools

Here "were the sons of fools" represents having the characteristics fools. AT: "They were like fools" or "they were fools" (See: Metaphor)

indeed, sons of nameless people

The word "indeed" shows that what follows strengthens the previous thought. Here "sons of nameless people" represents having the characteristics of nameless people. AT: "indeed, they were nameless people" or "indeed, they were worthless" (See: Metaphor)

nameless people

Here being "nameless" represents having no honor or respect. It means that they are worthless. AT: "worthless people" (See: Metaphor)

They were driven out of the land with whips

This can be stated in active form. Possible meanings are 1) the idea of whips implies that they were being treated like criminals. AT: "People treated them like criminals and forced them to leave the land" or 2) people actually used whips to force them out. AT: "People whipped them and forced them to leave the land" (See: Metonymy)

They were driven out of the land

Here "the land" refers to the land where they lived before they were forced to go out to the wilderness.

translationWords

descend

fool

son

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

under the nettles they gather (Orties in French), nettles. They would gather, as in (Isa. 14:1), “and join (ונספחו) the house of Jacob.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.