Translations
KJVPrimary
King James VersionWho cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
F.O.G.Secondary
The F.O.GThey plucked saltwort from the shrubs and broom-root for their bread.
F.O.G.M.
F.O.G MessageThey picked bitter saltwort from the bushes and gnawed broom-root just to stay alive.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThey plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
Footnotes
*מַלּוּחַ* (malluach) is likely saltwort or orache — a bitter, barely edible salt herb of arid regions. *רְתָמִים* (retamim) is the white broom plant, whose roots could be charred and eaten in extremity. Both plants signal the outer edge of subsistence: these are not merely poor men but men eating what no one else would touch. The detail is ethnographic, anchoring the desperation in the material realities of the ancient Near East.
