1 Kings 4:23

23 ten cows that were fed on good grain, twenty cows that were raised in the fields, one hundred sheep, three kinds of deer, and fattened birds.

1 Kings 4:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 4:23

Ten fat oxen
Such as were kept up in the stall and fatted:

and twenty oxen out of the pastures;
which were killed as they were taken from thence, and not put up to be fed:

and an hundred sheep;
out of the folds:

beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer;
which were clean creatures, according to the Levitical law, ( Deuteronomy 14:5 ) ; these were hunted in fields, or taken out of the park, or were presents from other countries; so that here was plenty of beef, mutton, and venison: for the spiritual application of this to the antitypical Solomon, and his provisions, see ( Matthew 22:4 ) ;

and fatted fowl;
such as we call capons ^F1; some Jewish writers ^F2, because of the likeness of sound in the word here used, take them to be Barbary fowls, or such as were brought from that country: there is a sort of birds called (barbaroi) , which were without a voice, that neither heard men, nor knew their voice ^F3.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 So David de Pomis, Tzemach David, fol. 12. 3. and some in Kimchi in loc.
F2 Baal Aruch & R. Elias Levit. Tishbi, in voce (rbrb) .
F3 Scholia in Aristoph. Aves, p. 550.

1 Kings 4:23 In-Context

21 Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought Solomon the payments he demanded, and they were under his control all his life.

22 Solomon needed much food each day to feed himself and all the people who ate at his table: one hundred ninety-five bushels of fine flour, three hundred ninety bushels of grain,

23 ten cows that were fed on good grain, twenty cows that were raised in the fields, one hundred sheep, three kinds of deer, and fattened birds.

24 Solomon controlled all the countries west of the Euphrates River -- the land from Tiphsah to Gaza. And he had peace on all sides of his kingdom.

25 During Solomon's life Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, also lived in peace; all of his people were able to sit under their own fig trees and grapevines.