Little ones to the waters, &c.— Their younger ones for water. Jeremiah 14:6. The wild asses, &c.] The wild asses stood upon the cliffs. These animals are said to stand on the high places or cliffs, because in that situation the current of air is stronger and cooler than in lower places: and for the same reason it is that they are said to snuff up the air like dragons, because they are reputed to delight in cool places. The LXX. omit the words like dragons. AElian tells us, that the dragons, which are a sort of large serpents, hold their heads up during a certain space of time every day to suck in the air, and by this means reach the birds which fly near them. See AElian. Nat. Hist. lib. 2: cap. 19. Ludolf thinks that the crocodiles are here meant, which frequently raise their heads above the water to breathe, as do many other amphibious creatures. There is a passage in Virgil very similar to this of Jeremiah:
——Bucula coelum, Suspiciens, patulis captavit naribus auram.
The heifer, tossing high her head in air, With broader nostrils snuffs the gale afar. Georg. i. 375. WARTON.
WARTON.