Job 8:11

Can the rush grow up without mire?.... No, at least not long, or so as to lift up his head on high, as the word signifies (a); the rush or bulrush, which seems to be meant, delights in watery places,

Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water? Rush - rather, paper reed: the papyrus of Egypt, which was used to make garments, shoes, baskets, boats, and paper (a word derived from it).

Without mire, i.e. if it be not in moist and miry ground. This and what follows he mentions as it were in the person of those ancients to whom he had referred him, of whom he saith that they would give him such instructions as these. The flag; or, the grass; or, the meadow, as this word is used, , i.e. the grass of a meadow, But our translation seems the best, because it is compared with other herbs.

Job 8:11 Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?Ver. 11. Can the rush grow up without mire?] Iam subiungit quod illi exploratum habuerant et perspectum, sed eleganti similitudine, saith Mercer; that is, here Bildad setteth forth what the fathers had observed, taught, and told them; and this he doth by three elegant similitudes, which was a way of teaching usual among the ancients, ut quod per simplex praeceptum teneri non possit, per similitudines teneretur, that that which could not be remembered by simple precepts, might be retained by similitudes drawn from natural things, which are as shadows to us of spiritual (Hieron. in cap. 19, Matth.). And first from the rush, which hath its name from drinking; because it lives in liquor, it loves and delights in a moorish soil. Can the rush (or bulrush, Exodus 2:3 Isaiah 18:2) grow up? Heb. perk and pride itself, bear the head aloft, shoot up amain, without mire or moisture, such as are the fens? Job 40:21. The meaning hereof is, saith Ferus, look how the rush and flag grow not but in miry places; remove them to dry and firm ground, and they soon wither: so the wicked hypocrite in prosperity maketh a great show of piety; but in adversity he loseth that very show, and by his impatience maketh the hollowness of his heart appear to all men. And herein Bildad aimed at the making of Job’ s case odious, whom he now held to be a hypocrite. Can the flag] Or grass of the meadow? Genesis 41:2. It hath its name from brotherhood, because many piles of grass, or sedge, grow from one and the same root, but not without water. See 1 Kings 18:5, Sic mala quaedam olitores Germanitatis recant.

(11) The flag is the plant of Gen 41:2, which the cattle feed upon. This figure is enforced by a second, that, namely, of the spider’s web, the most fragile and transient of tenements.

Verse 11. Can the rush grow] The word גמא gome, which we translate rush, is, without doubt, the Egyptian flag papyrus, on which the ancients wrote, and from which our paper derives its name. The Septuagint, who made their Greek translation in Egypt, (if this book made a part of it,) and knew well the import of each word in both languages, render גמא gome by παπυρος papyrus, thus: Μηθαλλειπαπυροςανευὑδατος; Can the PAPYRUS flourish without water? Their translation leaves no doubt concerning the meaning of the original. They were probably writing on the very substance in question, while making their translation. The technical language of no science is so thoroughly barbarous as that of botany: the description of this plant by Linnaeus, shall be a proof. The plant he calls "Cyperus Papyrus; CLASS Triandria; ORDER Monogynia; Culm three-sided, naked; umbel longer than the involucres; involucels three-leaved, setaceous, longer; spikelets in threes. - Egypt, c. Involucre eight-leaved general umbel copious, the rays sheathing at the base; partial on very short peduncles; spikelets alternate, sessile; culm leafy at the base; leaves hollow, ensiform." Hear our plain countryman John Gerarde, who describes the same plant: "Papyrus Nilotica, Paper Reed, hath many large flaggie leaves, somewhat triangular and smooth, not much unlike those of cats-taile, rising immediately from a tuft of roots, compact of many strings; amongst the which it shooteth up two or three naked stalkes, square, and rising some six or seven cubits high above the water; at the top whereof there stands a tuft or bundle off chaffie threds, set in comely order, resembling a tuft of floures, but barren and void of seed;" GERARDE'S Herbal, p. 40. Which of the two descriptions is easiest to be understood by common sense, either with or without a knowledge of the Latin language? This plant grows in the muddy banks of the Nile, as it requires an abundance of water for its nourishment. Can the flag grow without water?] Parkhurst supposes that the word אחו achu, which we render flag, is the same with that species of reed which Mr. Hasselquist found growing near the river Nile. He describes it (p. 97) as "having scarcely any branches, but numerous leaves, which are narrow, smooth, channelled on the upper surface; and the plant about eleven feet high. The Egyptians make ropes of the leaves. They lay the plant in water, like hemp, and then make good and strong cables of them." As אח ach signifies to join, connect, associate, hence אחי achi, a brother, אחו achu may come from the same root, and have its name from its usefulness in making ropes, cables, &c., which are composed of associated threads, and serve to tie, bind together, &c.

11. The ancient wisdom itself. This wisdom is plainly not that of the Arabs or Idumeans, but is Egyptian. The rush is most probably the Papyrus, which is said to attain a growth twice the height of a man. The flag is the Nile-reed, or Nile-grass (only here and Genesis 41:2).

Can the rush - This passage has all the appearance of being a fragment of a poem handed down from ancient times.

b. The luxuriant water-reeds that tower above the marshes of the Nile, and quickly wither when its waters are suddenly withdrawn, image forth the short-lived prosperity of the wicked, whose roots