1 Kings 4:23

23 Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls.

1 Kings 4:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 4:23

Ten fat oxen
Such as were kept up in the stall and fatted:

and twenty oxen out of the pastures;
which were killed as they were taken from thence, and not put up to be fed:

and an hundred sheep;
out of the folds:

beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer;
which were clean creatures, according to the Levitical law, ( Deuteronomy 14:5 ) ; these were hunted in fields, or taken out of the park, or were presents from other countries; so that here was plenty of beef, mutton, and venison: for the spiritual application of this to the antitypical Solomon, and his provisions, see ( Matthew 22:4 ) ;

and fatted fowl;
such as we call capons ^F1; some Jewish writers ^F2, because of the likeness of sound in the word here used, take them to be Barbary fowls, or such as were brought from that country: there is a sort of birds called (barbaroi) , which were without a voice, that neither heard men, nor knew their voice ^F3.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 So David de Pomis, Tzemach David, fol. 12. 3. and some in Kimchi in loc.
F2 Baal Aruch & R. Elias Levit. Tishbi, in voce (rbrb) .
F3 Scholia in Aristoph. Aves, p. 550.

1 Kings 4:23 In-Context

21 And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the days of his life.

22 And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal;

23 Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls.

24 For he had authority over all the country on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side.

25 So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.