And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a
cruse
of honey, and go to him
It being usual to carry a present to a prophet when he was
inquired of on any account, see ( 1 Samuel 9:7
) and this being a plain present, and of such things as the
country afforded, she might be taken for a plain countrywoman,
and not for such a personage as she was: the ten loaves could not
be large for a woman to carry, most probably made of wheat; the
cracknels, according to the Greek version in Drusius, were for
the prophet's children; they very likely were spiced, or were
sweetened with honey, and might be somewhat like our simnels;
they seem to have their name in Hebrew from having points and
pricks in them for the sake of ornament; such as Plautus
F8 calls "scribilitae", because as
Turnebus F9 says, they were marked and pricked,
and seemed as if they were written:
he shall tell thee what shall become of the
child;
whether it should live or die, for that was all he wanted to
know; he did not desire to know what should be done to the child
for its recovery, nor to request the prophet's prayers for it.
F8 Prolog. Poenulo, ver. 43.
F9 Adversar. l. 23. c. 10.
