1 Kings 4:28

28 They also brought to the designated place their assigned quota of barley and straw for the horses.

1 Kings 4:28 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 4:28

Barley also, and straw for the horses and dromedaries
Or rather mules, by comparing the passage with ( 2 Chronicles 9:24 ) ; the particular kind of creatures meant is not agreed on; though all take them to be a swifter sort of creatures than horses; or the swifter of horses, as race horses or posts horses: barley was for their provender, that being the common food of horses in those times and countries, and in others, as Bochart F8 has shown from various writers; and in the Misnah F9 it is called the food of beasts; and Solomon is said to have every day his own horses two hundred thousand Neapolitan measures of called "tomboli" {k}; so the Roman soldiers, the horse were allowed a certain quantity of barley for their horses every morning, and sometimes they had money instead of it, which they therefore called "hordiarium" F12 and the "straw" was for the litter of them: these

brought they unto the place;
where the officers were; not where the king was, as the Vulgate Latin version; where Solomon was, as the Arabic version, that is, in Jerusalem; nor

where [the officers] were;
in their respective jurisdictions, as our version supplies it, which would be bringing them to themselves; but to the place where the beasts were, whether in Jerusalem, or in any, other parts of the kingdom:

every man according to his charge:
which he was monthly to perform.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 9. col. 158, 159. Vid. Homer. Iliad. 4. ver. 196. and Iliad. 8. ver. 560.
F9 Sotah, c. 2. sect. 1.
F11 Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 10. 2.
F12 Vid. Valtrinum de re Militar. Roman. l. 3. c. 15. p. 236.

1 Kings 4:28 In-Context

26 Solomon had forty thousand stalls for chariot horses and twelve thousand horsemen.
27 The district managers, each according to his assigned month, delivered food supplies for King Solomon and all who sat at the king's table; there was always plenty.
28 They also brought to the designated place their assigned quota of barley and straw for the horses.
29 God gave Solomon wisdom - the deepest of understanding and the largest of hearts. There was nothing beyond him, nothing he couldn't handle.
30 Solomon's wisdom outclassed the vaunted wisdom of wise men of the East, outshone the famous wisdom of Egypt.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.