Butter of kine
Made of milk, which kine or cows give; Jarchi says, this is the
fat that is gathered on the top of milk, he means cream, and
which indeed was the butter of the ancients, and is here meant:
and milk of sheep:
which they give, though not in such plenty as the kine, yet what
is very wholesome and nourishing: the philosopher F2
observes, that sheep give more milk in proportion to the size of
their bodies than cows: and Pliny F3 says their milk is
sweeter and more nourishing, and the butter made of it is the
fattest:
with fat of lambs;
or fat lambs, rich and delicious food:
and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats;
a fruitful country abounding with pasturage, where rams and goats
of the best sort were and the breed of them was coveted and had
in the land of Canaan; the kine of Bashan are mentioned
elsewhere, ( Psalms 22:12
) ( Amos 4:1 )
;
with the fat of kidneys of wheat:
that is, the best wheat, the grains are plump and full; and Aben
Ezra observes, that a grain of wheat has some likeness to a
kidney, see ( Psalms 81:16
) ( 147:14 ) ;
and thou didst drink the pure blood of the
grape;
wine which comes from the grape, red wine, pure and unmixed, see
( Genesis
40:11 ) ; the land of Canaan was a land of vines, and
abounded with good wine, ( Deuteronomy
8:8 ) ; which the Israelites, when they came into it, drank
of in common, who had only drank water in the wilderness, and had
but little flesh, and lived on manna, and now abounded with
plenty of all good things; all which are observed as instances of
divine goodness, and to aggravate their ingratitude in rejecting
the Messiah, they then enjoying all these good things, the land
being alike fertile and affluent then, as appears from ( Isaiah 7:14 Isaiah 7:15 Isaiah 7:21 Isaiah 7:22 ) ; Jarchi
applies this fruitfulness to the times of Solomon, as the butter
of kine, and the kidneys of wheat, ( 1 Kings 4:22
1 Kings
4:23 ) ; and fat of lambs, and the blood of the grape, to the
times of the ten tribes, ( Amos
6:4-6 ) ; but this was the constant fertility of the land,
and lasted to the times of the Messiah: now all these may be
expressive of the blessings of grace, and the spiritual food of
the Gospel: Ainsworth very prettily remarks, that here is both
food for babes and for grown persons, butter and milk for the
one, and meat for the other, and drink for them both: the plain
truths of the Gospel are like butter, soft and easy to be taken
in, and like milk, easy of digestion, cooling, nourishing, sweet,
and pleasant; the more sublime truths of the Gospel are meat for
strong men, signified by the flesh of fat lambs, rams, and goats;
which all being used in sacrifices were typical of Christ; as
also the finest of wheat is an emblem of him the bread of life,
on whom the weakest believer lives by faith; and the drink for
both, the wine the blood of the grape, may signify the love of
Christ, the Gospel and the truths of it, and the blessings of
grace, which come through the everlasting covenant.
F2 Aristot. Problem. sect. 10. qu. 6.
F3 Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 9.