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Job 30:4
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- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Who cut up mallows by the bushes - מלוח malluach, which we translate mallows, comes from מלח melach, salt; some herb or shrub of a salt nature, sea-purslane, or the salsaria, salsola, or saltwort. Bochart says it is the ἁλιμος of the Greeks, and the halimus of the Romans. Some translate it nettles. The Syriac and Arabic omit the whole verse. The halimus, or atriplex halimus, grows near the sea in different countries, and is found in Spain, America, England, and Barbary. The salsaria, salsola, or saltwort, is an extensive genus of plants, several common to Asia, and not a few indigenous to a dry and sandy soil. And juniper roots for their meat - רתמים rethamim. This is variously translated juniper, broom, furze, gorse, or whin. It is supposed to derive its name from the toughness of its twigs, as רתם ratham signifies to bind; and this answers well enough to the broom. Genista quoque vinculi usum praestat, "The broom serves for bands," says Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xxiv., c. 9. But how can it be said that the roots of this shrub were eaten? I do not find any evidence from Asiatic writers that the roots of the juniper tree were an article of food; and some have supposed, because of this want of evidence, that the word לחמם lachmam, for their bread, should be understood thus, to bake their bread, because it is well known that the wood of the juniper gives an intense heat, and the coals of it endure a long time; and therefore we find coals of juniper, גחלי רחמים gachaley rethamim, used Psa 120:4 to express severe and enduring punishment. But that the roots of the juniper were used for food in the northern countries, among the Goths, we have a positive testimony from Olaus Magnus, himself a Goth, and archbishop of Upsal, in lib. vii., c. 4, of his Hist. de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. Speaking of the great number of different trees in their woods, he says: "There is a great plenty of beech trees in all the northern parts, the virtue whereof is this: that, being cut between the bark and the wood, they send forth a juice that is good for drink. The fruit of them in famine serves for bread, and their bark for clothing. Likewise also the berries of the juniper, yea, even the roots of this tree are eaten for bread, as holy Job testifies, though it is difficult to come at them by reason of their prickles: in these prickles, or thorns, live coals will last a whole year. If the inhabitants do not quench them, when winds arise they set the woods on fire, and destroy all the circumjacent fields." In this account both the properties of the juniper tree, referred to by Job and David, are mentioned by the Gothic prelate. They use its berries and roots for food, and its wood for fire.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
mallows--rather, "salt-wort," which grows in deserts and is eaten as a salad by the poor [MAURER]. by the bushes--among the bushes. juniper--rather, a kind of broom, Spartium junceum [LINNÆUS], still called in Arabia, as in the Hebrew of Job, retem, of which the bitter roots are eaten by the poor.
John Gill Bible Commentary
Who cut up mallows by the bushes,.... Which with the Troglodytes were of a vast size (r); or rather "upon the bush" (s) or "tree"; and therefore cannot mean what we call mallows, which are herbs on the ground, and grow not on trees or bushes; and, besides, are not for food, but rather for medicine: though Plutarch (t) says they, were the food of the meaner sort of people; so Horace (u) speaks of them as such; and the word in the original is near in sound to a mallow; but it signifies something salt, wherefore Mr. Broughton renders it "salt herbs"; so Grotius, such as might grow by the seaside, or in salt marshes; and in Edom, or Idumea, where Job lived, was a valley of salt, see Kg2 14:7. Jarchi says it is the same with what the Syrians in their language call "kakuli", which with them is a kind of pulse; but what the Turks at this day call "kakuli" is a kind of salt herb, like to "alcali", which is the food of camels (x) the Septuagint render the word by "alima"; and, by several modern learned men, what is intended is thought to be the "halimus" of Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna; which is like unto a bramble, and grows in hedges and maritime places; the tops of which, when young and tender, are eaten, and the leaves boiled for food, and are eaten by poor people, being what soon filled the belly, and satisfied; and seem to be the same the Moors call "mallochia", and cry about the streets, as food for the poor to buy (y): however it appears upon the whole to be the tops or leaves of some sort of shrub, which Idumean people used to gather and live upon. The following story is reported in the Talmud (z) concerning King Jannai, who "went to Cochalith in the wilderness, and there subdued sixty fortified towns; and, upon his return, he greatly rejoiced, and called all the wise men of Israel, and said unto them, our fathers ate "malluchim" (the word used in this text of Job) at the time they were employed in building the sanctuary; so we will eat "malluchim" on remembrance of our fathers; and they set "malluchim" on tables of gold, and they ate;'' which the gloss interprets herbs; the name of which, in the Syriac language, is "kakuli"; the Targum is, who plucks up thorns instead of eatable herbs. Some (a) render the word "nettles", see Job 30:7; juniper roots for their meat, or "bread" (b); with the roots of which the poor were fed in time of want, as Schindler (v) observes: that bread may be, and has been made out of roots, is certain, as with the West Indians, out of the roots of "ages" and "jucca" (c); and in particular juniper roots in the northern countries have been used for bread (d); and there were a people in Ethiopia above Egypt, who lived upon roots of reeds prepared, and were called "rhisophagi" (e), "root eaters": some render the words, "or juniper roots to heat", or "warm with" (f), as the word is used in Isa 47:14; and coals of juniper have in them a very great and vehement heat, see Psa 120:3; but if any part of the juniper tree was taken for this purpose, to warm with when cold, one should think the branches, or the body of the tree, should be cut down, rather than the roots dug up: another sense is given by some (g), that meat or bread is to be understood of the livelihood these persons got by digging up juniper roots, and selling them: there are others that think, that not the roots of juniper, but of "broom" (h), are meant, whose rape, or navew, or excrescence from the roots of it, seem to be more fit food. All this agrees with the Troglodytes, whom Pliny (i) represents as thieves and robbers, and, when pressed with famine, dig up herbs and roots: cutters of roots are reckoned among the worst of men by Manetho (k). (r) Diodorus Siculus, l. 3. p. 175. (s) "super virgulto", Montanus, Schultens; "super arbustum", Bochart. (t) In symposio septem sap. (u) "-----me pascunt olivae. Me cichorea levesque malvae". Carmin. l. 1. Ode. 31. & Epod. Ode. 2. (x) Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 760. (y) lbid. vid. Reinesium de Lingua Punic. c. 9. S. 20, 21. (z) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 66. 1. (a) David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 80. 3. (b) "panis eorum", Montanus, Michaelis, Schultens. (v) Lexic. col. 1775. (c) Pet. Martyr. de Angleria, decad. 1. l. 1. (d) Olaus Magnus, de Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 12. c. 4. (e) Diod. Sic. l. 3. p. 159. (f) "Ad calefaciendum se", Pagninus; so Kimchi, Sepher Shorash rad, (g) Hillerus apud Schultens in loc. (h) "radix genistarum", Michaelis, Schultens; so some in Mercerus, Drusius, & Gussetius, p. 839. (i) Nat. Hist. l. 37. c. 8. (k) Apotelesm. l. 5. v. 183.
Job 30:4
Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt
3Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night. 4They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food. 5They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
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- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Who cut up mallows by the bushes - מלוח malluach, which we translate mallows, comes from מלח melach, salt; some herb or shrub of a salt nature, sea-purslane, or the salsaria, salsola, or saltwort. Bochart says it is the ἁλιμος of the Greeks, and the halimus of the Romans. Some translate it nettles. The Syriac and Arabic omit the whole verse. The halimus, or atriplex halimus, grows near the sea in different countries, and is found in Spain, America, England, and Barbary. The salsaria, salsola, or saltwort, is an extensive genus of plants, several common to Asia, and not a few indigenous to a dry and sandy soil. And juniper roots for their meat - רתמים rethamim. This is variously translated juniper, broom, furze, gorse, or whin. It is supposed to derive its name from the toughness of its twigs, as רתם ratham signifies to bind; and this answers well enough to the broom. Genista quoque vinculi usum praestat, "The broom serves for bands," says Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xxiv., c. 9. But how can it be said that the roots of this shrub were eaten? I do not find any evidence from Asiatic writers that the roots of the juniper tree were an article of food; and some have supposed, because of this want of evidence, that the word לחמם lachmam, for their bread, should be understood thus, to bake their bread, because it is well known that the wood of the juniper gives an intense heat, and the coals of it endure a long time; and therefore we find coals of juniper, גחלי רחמים gachaley rethamim, used Psa 120:4 to express severe and enduring punishment. But that the roots of the juniper were used for food in the northern countries, among the Goths, we have a positive testimony from Olaus Magnus, himself a Goth, and archbishop of Upsal, in lib. vii., c. 4, of his Hist. de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. Speaking of the great number of different trees in their woods, he says: "There is a great plenty of beech trees in all the northern parts, the virtue whereof is this: that, being cut between the bark and the wood, they send forth a juice that is good for drink. The fruit of them in famine serves for bread, and their bark for clothing. Likewise also the berries of the juniper, yea, even the roots of this tree are eaten for bread, as holy Job testifies, though it is difficult to come at them by reason of their prickles: in these prickles, or thorns, live coals will last a whole year. If the inhabitants do not quench them, when winds arise they set the woods on fire, and destroy all the circumjacent fields." In this account both the properties of the juniper tree, referred to by Job and David, are mentioned by the Gothic prelate. They use its berries and roots for food, and its wood for fire.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
mallows--rather, "salt-wort," which grows in deserts and is eaten as a salad by the poor [MAURER]. by the bushes--among the bushes. juniper--rather, a kind of broom, Spartium junceum [LINNÆUS], still called in Arabia, as in the Hebrew of Job, retem, of which the bitter roots are eaten by the poor.
John Gill Bible Commentary
Who cut up mallows by the bushes,.... Which with the Troglodytes were of a vast size (r); or rather "upon the bush" (s) or "tree"; and therefore cannot mean what we call mallows, which are herbs on the ground, and grow not on trees or bushes; and, besides, are not for food, but rather for medicine: though Plutarch (t) says they, were the food of the meaner sort of people; so Horace (u) speaks of them as such; and the word in the original is near in sound to a mallow; but it signifies something salt, wherefore Mr. Broughton renders it "salt herbs"; so Grotius, such as might grow by the seaside, or in salt marshes; and in Edom, or Idumea, where Job lived, was a valley of salt, see Kg2 14:7. Jarchi says it is the same with what the Syrians in their language call "kakuli", which with them is a kind of pulse; but what the Turks at this day call "kakuli" is a kind of salt herb, like to "alcali", which is the food of camels (x) the Septuagint render the word by "alima"; and, by several modern learned men, what is intended is thought to be the "halimus" of Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna; which is like unto a bramble, and grows in hedges and maritime places; the tops of which, when young and tender, are eaten, and the leaves boiled for food, and are eaten by poor people, being what soon filled the belly, and satisfied; and seem to be the same the Moors call "mallochia", and cry about the streets, as food for the poor to buy (y): however it appears upon the whole to be the tops or leaves of some sort of shrub, which Idumean people used to gather and live upon. The following story is reported in the Talmud (z) concerning King Jannai, who "went to Cochalith in the wilderness, and there subdued sixty fortified towns; and, upon his return, he greatly rejoiced, and called all the wise men of Israel, and said unto them, our fathers ate "malluchim" (the word used in this text of Job) at the time they were employed in building the sanctuary; so we will eat "malluchim" on remembrance of our fathers; and they set "malluchim" on tables of gold, and they ate;'' which the gloss interprets herbs; the name of which, in the Syriac language, is "kakuli"; the Targum is, who plucks up thorns instead of eatable herbs. Some (a) render the word "nettles", see Job 30:7; juniper roots for their meat, or "bread" (b); with the roots of which the poor were fed in time of want, as Schindler (v) observes: that bread may be, and has been made out of roots, is certain, as with the West Indians, out of the roots of "ages" and "jucca" (c); and in particular juniper roots in the northern countries have been used for bread (d); and there were a people in Ethiopia above Egypt, who lived upon roots of reeds prepared, and were called "rhisophagi" (e), "root eaters": some render the words, "or juniper roots to heat", or "warm with" (f), as the word is used in Isa 47:14; and coals of juniper have in them a very great and vehement heat, see Psa 120:3; but if any part of the juniper tree was taken for this purpose, to warm with when cold, one should think the branches, or the body of the tree, should be cut down, rather than the roots dug up: another sense is given by some (g), that meat or bread is to be understood of the livelihood these persons got by digging up juniper roots, and selling them: there are others that think, that not the roots of juniper, but of "broom" (h), are meant, whose rape, or navew, or excrescence from the roots of it, seem to be more fit food. All this agrees with the Troglodytes, whom Pliny (i) represents as thieves and robbers, and, when pressed with famine, dig up herbs and roots: cutters of roots are reckoned among the worst of men by Manetho (k). (r) Diodorus Siculus, l. 3. p. 175. (s) "super virgulto", Montanus, Schultens; "super arbustum", Bochart. (t) In symposio septem sap. (u) "-----me pascunt olivae. Me cichorea levesque malvae". Carmin. l. 1. Ode. 31. & Epod. Ode. 2. (x) Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 760. (y) lbid. vid. Reinesium de Lingua Punic. c. 9. S. 20, 21. (z) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 66. 1. (a) David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 80. 3. (b) "panis eorum", Montanus, Michaelis, Schultens. (v) Lexic. col. 1775. (c) Pet. Martyr. de Angleria, decad. 1. l. 1. (d) Olaus Magnus, de Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 12. c. 4. (e) Diod. Sic. l. 3. p. 159. (f) "Ad calefaciendum se", Pagninus; so Kimchi, Sepher Shorash rad, (g) Hillerus apud Schultens in loc. (h) "radix genistarum", Michaelis, Schultens; so some in Mercerus, Drusius, & Gussetius, p. 839. (i) Nat. Hist. l. 37. c. 8. (k) Apotelesm. l. 5. v. 183.