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, 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 F15 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, blistered and wounded, a word derived from this being used for the scab of leprosy, ( Leviticus 13:6-8 ) ; 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 says, it has thorns instead of leaves; and the shadow of it, according to the poet F18, is very noxious and disagreeable.
FOOTNOTES:
F13 (wqhny) "clamabant", Vatablus, Mercerus; so Ben Gerson; "gemebant", Michaelis; so Broughton.
F14 (lwrx txt) "sub carduis", Vatablus.
F15 "Sub sentibus", V. L. "sub vepreto aliquo", Tigurine version; "sub vepribus", Cocceius; "sub spina", Noldius, p. 193. Schultens.
F16 (wxpoy) "pungebantur", Junius & Tremellius; "se ulcerant", Gussetius, p. 565. so Ben Gersom; "they smarted", Broughton.
F17 Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 24.
F18 "Juniperi gravis umbra----" Virgil. Bucolic. Eclog. 10.
