Can the rush grow up without mire?
&c.] No, at least not long, or so as to lift up his head on high, as the word signifies F1; the rush or bulrush, which seems to be meant, delights in watery places, and has its name in Hebrew from its absorbing or drinking up water; it grows in moist and watery clay, or in marshy places, which Jarchi says is the sense of the word here used; the Septuagint understands it of the "paper reed", which, as Pliny F2 observes, grows in the marshy places of Egypt, and by the still waters of the river Nile:
can the flag grow without water?
or "the sedge" F3; which usually grows in moist places, and on the banks of rivers; this unless in such places, or if without water, cannot grow long, or make any very large increase, or come to maturity; so some F4 render it, "if the rush should grow up without" then it would be with it as follows.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.