1 Kings 4:28

28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his charge.

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 also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
27 And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon's table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking.
28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his charge.
29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of mind like the sand on the seashore,
30 so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.