Job 30:7
Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
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 Luke 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, Leviticus 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} wqhny "clamabant", Vatablus, Mercerus; so Ben Gerson; "gemebant", Michaelis; so Broughton.
{n} lwrx txt "sub carduis", Vatablus.
{o} "Sub sentibus", V. L. "sub vepreto aliquo", Tigurine version; "sub vepribus", Cocceius; "sub spina", Noldius, p. 193. Schultens.
{p} wxpoy "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.