Job 30:7

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" F13 ינהקו "clamabant", Vatablus, Mercerus; so Ben Gerson; "gemebant", Michaelis; so Broughton. , 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" F14 תחת חרול "sub carduis", Vatablus. , as some, or "under thorns", as F15 "Sub sentibus", V. L. "sub vepreto aliquo", Tigurine version; "sub vepribus", Cocceius; "sub spina", Noldius, p. 193. Schultens. 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" F16 יספחו "pungebantur", Junius & Tremellius; "se ulcerant", Gussetius, p. 565. so Ben Gersom; "they smarted", Broughton. , 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 F17 Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 24. says, it has thorns instead of leaves; and the shadow of it, according to the poet F18 "Juniperi gravis umbra----" Virgil. Bucolic. Eclog. 10. , is very noxious and disagreeable.