1 Kings 4:22

Contextual Overview

²⁰ Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. ²⁰ The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They were very contented, with plenty to eat and drink. ²⁰ Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. ²⁰ There were as many people in Judah and Israel as grains of sand on the seashore. The people ate, drank, and were happy. ²⁰ The people of Judah and Israel were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore; they had plenty to eat and drink and were happy. ²⁰ Judah and Israel [were] many, as the sand which [is] by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry. ²⁰ Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. ²⁰[The people of] Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is in abundance by the sea; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing. ²⁰ Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. ²⁰ Juda and Israel weren vnnoumbrable, as the soond of the see in multitude, etynge, and drynkynge, and beynge glad.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

provision: Heb. bread

measures: Heb. cors, 1 Kings 4:22

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 8:12 - and will set 1 Kings 5:11 - measures 1 Kings 10:5 - the meat 1 Kings 12:4 - our yoke 2 Chronicles 9:4 - the meat Nehemiah 5:18 - Now that Proverbs 24:4 - General Ecclesiastes 5:11 - they Isaiah 3:7 - neither bread Daniel 1:5 - a daily

Cross-References

Exodus 25:3
And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,

Exodus 25:3
And this is the offering which you shall take of them: gold, and silver, and bronze,

Exodus 25:3
And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass;

Exodus 25:3
These are the gifts that you should receive from them: gold, silver, bronze;

Exodus 25:3
This is the offering you are to accept from them: gold, silver, bronze,

Exodus 25:3
And this [is] the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver and brass,

Exodus 25:3
This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, brass,

Exodus 25:3
"This is the offering you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,

Exodus 25:3
Forsothe these thingis it ben, whiche ye schulen take, gold, and siluer, and bras, iacynt,

Exodus 25:3
`And this [is] the heave-offering which ye take from them; gold, and silver, and brass,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour,.... The measure here used was the "corus", or "cor", the same with the homer, which was equal to ten ephahs, and, according to Bishop Cumberland w, held seventy five wine gallons and five pints, and somewhat more; by which may be known how many gallons of fine flour these thirty measures held, which were all consumed in one day:

and threescore measures of meal: sixty measures of a coarser sort, for the servants, not so finely dressed; the same measure is here used as before; and it is observed by some, that one cor is equivalent to six hundred forty eight Roman pounds, and allowing to one man two pounds a day for his food, there would be food enough for 29,160 men out of 90 times 648, or 58,320 pounds x. Others exaggerate the account; Vilalpandus says it would have sufficed 48,600 persons; Seth Calvisius 54,000, and Salianus 70,000 y; the Jews say z that he had 60,000 that ate at his table; that is, who were maintained at his court.

w Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 3. p. 86. x Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 516. y Vid. Witsii Miscellan. tom. 2. exercit. 10. sect. 26. z Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 8. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thirty measures - (margin, cors) The cor, which was the same measure as the homer, is computed, on the authority of Josephus, at 86 English gallons, on the authority of the rabbinical writers at 44. Thirty cors, even at the lower estimate, would equal 1,320 gallons, or 33 of our “sacks;” and the 90 cors of fine and coarse flour would altogether equal 99 sacks. From the quantity of flour consumed, it has been conjectured that the number of those who fed at the royal board was 14,000.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 4:22. Solomon's provision for one day: -

Of fine flour . . . . . . 30 measures, or cors.

Of meal . . . . . . . . . 60 ditto.

Stall-fed oxen. . . . . . 10

Ditto from the pasture. . 20

Sheep . . . . . . . . . . 100; with harts, roebucks, fallow deer, and fat fowls.

The כר cor was the same as the homer, and contained nearly seventy-six gallons, wine measure, according to Bishop Cumberland.

Sheep — צאן tson, comprehending both sheep and goats.

Harts — מאיל meaiyal, the deer.

Roebucks — צבי tsebi, the gazal, antelope, or wild goat.

Fallow deer — יחמור yachmur, the buffalo. See the notes on Deuteronomy 12:15; Deuteronomy 14:5.

Fatted fowl. — ברברים אבוסים barburim abusim, I suppose, means all the wild fowls in season during each month. Michaelis derives barburim from ברא bara, which in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, signifies a field, a desert; all that is without the cities and habitations of men: hence חיות ברא cheyvath bara, wild beasts, Daniel 2:38, תור בר tor bar, wild bull; and therefore barburim may signify creatures living in the fields, woods, and deserts, which are taken by hunting, and opposed to those which are domesticated; and, consequently, may include beasts as well as fowls. Many have translated the word capons; but, query, was any such thing known among the ancient Jews? Solomon's table, therefore, was spread with all the necessaries and delicacies which the house or the field could afford.

But how immense must the number of men have been who were fed daily at the palace of the Israelitish king! Vilalpandus computes the number to be not less than forty-eight thousand, six hundred; and Calvisius makes, by estimation from the consumption of food, fifty-four thousand! These must have included all his guards, each of whom received a ration from the king's store.