2 Samuel 17:29

29 Du miel, du beurre, des brebis, et des fromages de vache, pour se nourrir; car ils disaient: Ce peuple est affamé; il est las, et il a soif dans ce désert.

2 Samuel 17:29 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 17:29

And honey and butter
Honey was much in use with the ancients; Homer F2 speaks of it as a part of the provisions at a feast, and as food with which persons were nourished and brought up; and the ancient Scythians lived on milk and honey F3; and this and butter were pretty much the food of the people in Judea; see ( Isaiah 7:15-22 ) ;

and sheep;
with which and goats the land of Gilead abounded; see ( Song of Solomon 4:1 Song of Solomon 4:2 ) ;

and cheese of kine:
made of the milk of cows, as it commonly is:

for David, and for the people that [were] with him, to eat;
and no doubt they brought wine with them for them to drink; the men that brought these, some brought one sort, and some another, or however different parcels of the same, and did not join in one present; for they came from different parts:

for they said, the people [is] hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the
wilderness;
where they had been some time, and out of which they had just come, and so weary with travelling, and therefore brought beds to lie down and rest upon; and being hungry and thirsty, through want of bread and water in the wilderness, they brought them both eatables and drinkables; for though the latter is not expressed, it is to be understood, as the word "thirsty" supposes.


FOOTNOTES:

F2 Iliad. 11. ver. 630. Odyss. 10. ver. 245. & Odyss. 20. ver. 72. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 11. Sueton. Vita Nero. c. 27.
F3 Justin e Trogo, l. 2. c. 2.

2 Samuel 17:29 In-Context

27 Et lorsque David fut arrivé à Mahanaïm, Shobi, fils de Nachash, qui était de Rabba des enfants d'Ammon, et Makir, fils d'Ammiel de Lodébar, et Barzillaï, Galaadite, de Roguélim,
28 Apportèrent à David et au peuple qui était avec lui, des lits, des bassins, des vases de terre, du froment, de l'orge, de la farine, du grain rôti, des fèves, des lentilles, et d'autres grains rôtis,
29 Du miel, du beurre, des brebis, et des fromages de vache, pour se nourrir; car ils disaient: Ce peuple est affamé; il est las, et il a soif dans ce désert.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.