Job 30:4

“Who cut up mallows by the bushes, etc.] Which with the Troglodytes were of a vast size f1062; or rather “upon the bush” f1063 or “tree”; and therefore cannot mean what we call mallows, which are herbs on the ground, and grow not on trees or bushes; and, besides, are not for food, but rather for medicine: though Plutarch f1064 says they, were the food of the meaner sort of people; so Horace f1065 speaks of them as such; and the word in the original is near in sound to a mallow; but it signifies something salt, wherefore Mr. Broughton renders it “salt herbs”; so Grotius, such as might grow by the seaside, or in salt marshes; and in Edom, or Idumea, where Job lived, was a valley of salt, (see…”

“mallows--rather, "salt-wort," which grows in deserts and is eaten as a salad by the poor [MAURER]. by the bushes--among the bushes. juniper--rather, a kind of broom, Spartium junceum [LINNÆUS], still called in Arabia, as in the Hebrew of Job, retem, of which the bitter roots are eaten by the poor.”

“Who cut up mallows - For the purpose of eating. Mallows are common medicinal plants, famous for their emollient or softening properties, and the size and brilliancy of their flowers. It is not probable, however, that Job referred to what we commonly understand by the word mallows. It has been commonly supposed that he meant a species of plant, called by the Greeks Hallimus, a sunfish plant, or “salt wort,” growing commonly in the deserts and poor land, and eaten as a salad. The Vulgate renders it simply “herbas;” the Septuagint, ἄλιμα alima. The Hebrew word, according to Umbreit, means a common salad of a saltish taste, whose young leaves being cooked, constituted food for the poorer…”

“Who cut - Bitter herbs, which shews their extreme necessity. Juniper - Possibly the word may signify some other plant, for the Hebrews themselves are at a loss for the signification of the names of plants. Job 30:7”

“mallows: The Hebrew malluach, in Arabic, malluch, and in Syriac mallucho, is probably the Lalima or Lalimos of the Greeks, and halimus of the Romans, which Dioscorides describes as a kind of bramble, without thorns, the leaves of which are boiled and eaten. juniper roots: The Hebrew rothem, in Arabic, ratim, and in Spanish, retama, most probably signifies the genista or broom, which is very abundant in the deserts of Arabia. for their meat: Kg2 4:38, Kg2 4:39; Amo 7:14; Luk 15:16 Job 30:5”