1 Samuel 8:13

13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, or bakers.

1 Samuel 8:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 8:13

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries
Such as deal in spices, and mix them, and make them up in various forms very agreeable to the taste. Men are commonly in our countries and times employed in such arts, but it seems this was the business of women in those times and places. Some versions ^F4 render it "unguentariae", makers or sellers of ointments, and such there were in some nations ^F5, such was Lydia in Juvenal ^F6;

and to be cooks;
to dress all sorts of food, especially what were boiled, as the word signifies: and to be bakers; to make and bake bread, which though with us is the work of men, yet in the eastern countries was usually done by women; (See Gill on Leviticus 26:26).

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 So V. L. and Tigurine.
F5 Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 5.
F6 Satyr. 2. ver. 141. Vid. Turnebi Adversar. l. 15. c. 17.

1 Samuel 8:13 In-Context

11 "This is how the king will rule over you," Samuel said: "He will take your sons, and will use them for his chariots and his cavalry and as runners for his chariot.

12 He will use them as his commanders of troops of one thousand and troops of fifty, or to do his plowing and his harvesting, or to make his weapons or parts for his chariots.

13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, or bakers.

14 He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves and give them to his servants.

15 He will give one-tenth of your grain and your vineyards to his officials and servants.