Kings I 14:3

3 And Achia son of Achitob, the brother of Jochabed the son of Phinees, the son of Heli, the priest of God in Selom wearing an ephod: and the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.

Kings I 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.

Kings I 14:3 In-Context

1 And when a certain day arrived, Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man that bore his armour, Come, and let us go over to Messab of the Philistines that is on the other side yonder; but he told not his father.
2 And Saul sat on the top of the hill under the pomegranate tree that is in Magdon, and there were with him about six hundred men.
3 And Achia son of Achitob, the brother of Jochabed the son of Phinees, the son of Heli, the priest of God in Selom wearing an ephod: and the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.
4 And in the midst of the passage whereby Jonathan sought to pass over to the encampment of the Philistines, there was both a sharp rock on this side, and a sharp rock on the other side: the name of the one Bases, and the name of the other Senna.
5 The one way northward to one coming to Machmas, and the other way southward to one coming to Gabae.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.