Job 30:7

They brayed ¹  like animals among the bushes and were huddled together ²  under the nettles.

They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.

"Among the bushes they cry out; Under the nettles they are gathered together.

They sound like animals as they howl among the bushes; they huddle together for shelter beneath the nettles.

You could hear them out there at the edge of town, yelping and barking, huddled in junkyards,

They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.

Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.

Among the bushes they brayed, Under the nettles they nestled.

They brayed ¹  like animals among the bushes and were huddled together ²  under the nettles.

¹ tn The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.

² tn The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people – “they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).