1 Kings 14:3

3 You must take ten loaves of bread in your hand and cakes and a jar of honey, and you must go to him. He shall tell you what will happen to the boy."

1 Kings 14:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 14:3

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.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Prolog. Poenulo, ver. 43.
F9 Adversar. l. 23. c. 10.

1 Kings 14:3 In-Context

1 At that time, Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill.
2 Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you [are] the wife of Jeroboam, and go [to] Shiloh. Look, Ahijah the prophet is there, and he spoke concerning me [before I became] king over this people.
3 You must take ten loaves of bread in your hand and cakes and a jar of honey, and you must go to him. He shall tell you what will happen to the boy."
4 The wife of Jeroboam did so. She got up, went [to] Shiloh, and came [to] the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was not able to see, for {his eyes were fixed} because of his old age.
5 Then Yahweh said to Ahijah, "Look, the wife of Jeroboam [is] coming to seek a word from you about her son, for he [is] ill. {Thus and so} you shall say to her. When she comes, she [will be] disguising herself."
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