Bray
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (v. t.) To make or utter with a loud, discordant, or harsh and grating sound.
(2): (v. i.) To make a harsh, grating, or discordant noise.
(3): (v. i.) To utter a loud, harsh cry, as an ass.
(4): (v. t.) To pound, beat, rub, or grind small or fine.
(5): (n.) The harsh cry of an ass; also, any harsh, grating, or discordant sound.
(6): (n.) A bank; the slope of a hill; a hill. See Brae, which is now the usual spelling.
King James Dictionary [2]
BRAY,
1. To pound, beat or grind small as, to bray a fool in a mortar. Proverbs 27 2. To make a harsh sound, as of an ass. 3. To make a harsh,disagreeable grating sound.
BRAY, n. The harsh sound or roar of an ass a harsh grating sound.
1. Shelving ground.
BRAY, n. A bank or mound of earth.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
brā ( נהק , nāhaḳ , "to bray," of the ass; כּתשׁ , kāthash , "to pound in a mortar"): This word occurs with two distinct meanings: ( a ) The harsh cry of the ass ( Job 6:5 ). Job argued that as the sounds instinctively uttered by animals denote their wants, even so his Words were but the natural expression of his longing for some adequate explanation of his sufferings, or, failing this, for death itself. Used figuratively of Job's mockers ( Job 30:7 ). ( b ) "To beat small in a mortar," "to chastise." Proverbs 27:22 refers to a more elaborate process than threshing for separating grain (the English Revised Version "corn") from its husk and impurities; used figuratively of a thorough but useless course of discipline; or still more probably with reference to the Syrian custom of braying meat and bruised corn together in a mortar with a pestle, "till the meat and grain become a uniform indistinguishable pulp" (see The Expositor Times , VIII, 521).
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [4]
signifying in Old English to pound, stands in the Auth. Vers. at Proverbs 27:22, for כָּתִשׁ , Ka. Thash', to beat to pieces in a mortar (q.v.). This punishment is still in use among Oriental nations. Roberts observes, " Cruel as it is, this is a punishment of the state; the poor victim is thrust into the mortar, and beaten with the pestle. The late King of Kandy compelled one of the wives of his rebellious chiefs thus to beat her own infant to death. Hence the saying, 'Though you beat that loose woman in a mortar, she will not leave her ways;' which means, though you chastise her ever so much, she will never improve." (See Punishment').
As the appropriate word for the voice of the ass, " bray" represents, in Job 6:5 (figuratively in 30:7), נָהִק , Nahak'. See Ass.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [5]
A Berkshire village, famous for Simon Aleyn, its vicar from 1540 to 1588, who, to retain his living, never scrupled to change his principles; he lived in the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George I.
