Job Chapter 8 verse 11 Holy Bible
Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water?
read chapter 8 in ASV
Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet earth? will the grass get tall without water?
read chapter 8 in BBE
Doth the papyrus shoot up without mire? doth the reed-grass grow without water?
read chapter 8 in DARBY
Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?
read chapter 8 in KJV
Can the rush grow without mire? can the flag grow without water?
read chapter 8 in WBT
"Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?
read chapter 8 in WEB
`Doth a rush wise without mire? A reed increase without water?
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 11 - Can the rush grow up without mire? The word translated "rush" (גמא) is that which occurs also in Exodus if. 3: Isaiah 18:2 and Isaiah 35:7, as designating a plant common in Egypt, and which is only found in these four places. It is generally admitted that the "papyrus" is meant "a plant of the Cyperaceae or sedge family, which was formerly common in Egypt" (Hooker, in Smith's 'Dict. of the Bible,' vol. 3. p. 1019). The chief peculiarity of the papyrus is its triangular stem, which rises to the height of six or seven, sometimes even of thirteen or fourteen, feet, and terminates in a bunch of thread-like flowering branchlets. The pith of these stems was the material of which the ancient Egyptians made their paper. The papyrus is a water-plant, and needs an abundant supply, but would often spring up out of any small pool which the Nile left as it retired, and, when the water failed from the peel, would rapidly wither away. A fine papyrus plant was on view, with other water-plants, in the circular greenhouse in Kew Gardens, towards the end of the season of 1890. Can the flag grow without water "The flag" (אחוּ) seems to be the ordinary sedge, or marah-plant. Like the papyrus, it would often spring up in all its greenness from a pool or pond left by the retiring river, and then in a few days, when the water was dried up, would wither away. Both images represent the prosperity of the wicked, and were probably proverbial.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(11) The flag is the plant of Genesis 41:2, which the cattle feed upon. This figure is enforced by a second, that, namely, of the spider's web, the most fragile and transient of tenements.
