274. That to "eat the herb of the field" (that is, wild food) denotes to live like a wild animal, is evident from what is said of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel:
They shall drive thee from man, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field; they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee (Dan 4:25).
And in Isaiah:
Hast thou not heard how I have done it long ago, and from the days of old have I formed it; now have I brought it to pass, and it shall be to lay waste bulwarks, fenced cities, in heaps; and their inhabitants, short of hand, were dismayed and put to shame; they were made the grass of the field, and the green [olus] of the herb, the grass of the housetops, and a field parched before [coram] the standing corn (Isa. 37:26-27).
Here it is explained what is signified by the "grass of the field" the "green of the herb" the "grass on the housetops" and a "field parched;" for the subject here treated of is the time before the flood, which is meant by "long ago" and the "days of old."