Bible Strands
Job 30:7
They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks this line in a monologue describing the degraded social outcasts who now mock him. He places these figures in the desolate wadi slopes and rocky hollows mentioned in the surrounding context.
The words — The Hebrew יִנְהָ֑קוּ (yin.ha.ku) literally means "they bray," describing the vocalization of wild donkeys, while יְסֻפָּֽחוּ (ye.su.pa.chu) means "they are joined together," depicting their crowded huddling.
The thread — This braying imagery connects to Job 6:5, which questions a wild donkey’s bray over fresh grass, while Genesis 16:12 and Job 11:12 use the wild donkey as a metaphor for untamed, witless existence.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of how social status and physical comfort can rapidly deteriorate into marginalization. It asks the reader to acknowledge the fragility of human dignity when stripped of community and shelter.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
Cross-references
- Genesis 16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
- Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass, or an ox low over its fodder?
- Job 11:12 But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!