1 Samuel 8:13

13 He will take your daughters as [his] perfume makers and as cooks and as 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 He said, "This will be the custom of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots.

12 He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and [those] {to do his plowing} and to reap his harvest, and [those] to make weapons of war and the equipment for his chariots.

13 He will take your daughters as [his] perfume makers and as cooks and as bakers.

14 He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive trees and will give [them] to his servants.

15 He will take a tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give [it] to his high officials and to his servants.