They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
Ver. 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains] Wet they are, but not at all refreshed, as this word (here only found in the Bible) signifieth sometimes among the Rabbis. Cold comfort they find abroad; and at home they dare not abide, lest rich men should oppress them and draw them before the judgment seats, James 2:6, or drag them to prison for refusing their drudgery. Hence they are forced to live in the mountains and desert places, in extreme misery.
And embrace the rock for want of a shelter] Like conies or wild beasts, glad of any lurking place that may keep them out of the hands of unreasonable and wicked men. What hardship have many worthy men in all ages suffered from persecutors and oppressors (in Dioclesian's days especially), driven out of house and harbour, and glad to take up in any hole, there to lie on the cold stone instead of a warm bed (as that good duchess of Suffolk, with that noble gentleman her husband, did in the Low Countries, whither they fled from the Marian persecution), till, as Elijah once under the juniper, they wish themselves out of the world? Iterum hic disce gratias Deo agere, saith Lavater. Here again learn to give thanks to God for this great benefit, if thou mayest stay at home, and not be forced to flee for thy life, or for conscience' sake; for home is home, as we say, and very desirable; and the apostle reckons it for a piece of his sufferings that he was ανεστιος, and had no settled station, no certain dwelling place, αστατουμεν, 1 Corinthians 4:11 .