Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
Ver. 7. Among the bushes they brayed] Through grief and discontent at their low condition and many miseries; which yet they would rather bootlessly bewail than take a right course to remedy. They lust, and have not; they kill (themselves through idleness), and desire to have (if it would come without labour), but cannot obtain, James 4:2. And hence they bray like the wild ass when empty, and roar as the lion when bitten with hunger.
Under the nettles they were gathered together] Or they were pricked, whealed, as we call it. Urtica ab urendo, they were nettle stung, while they got under those weeds for shelter and warmth. All this Job relateth of those that derided him; not to be even with them, or out of a desire to disparage them, but to aggravate the indignity of his misusage, and to comfort himself, as Seneca in like case did: Male de me loquuntur, sed mali, They speak evil of me, but who are they? base persons, and wicked above measure; and oh how easy a thing it is to wag a wicked tongue! especially when the devil hath the doing of it, as he hath in this kind of men qui revera os aperiunt, et diabolum loqui sinunt, whose mouth the devil borroweth to vent the language of hell by (Lavater).