Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child.”
Parallel Translations
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Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child.”
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And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.
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And take with thee ten loaves, and biscuits, and a cruse of honey, and go to him; he will tell thee what shall become of the child.'
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to 1 Kings 14:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Samuel 9:7-8 Then Saul said to his servant, “But, behold, if we go, what should we bring the man? For the bread is spent in our sacks, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?” The servant answered Saul again, and said, “Behold, I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God, to tell us our way.”
- 1 Kings 13:7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
- 2 Kings 4:42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”
- 2 Kings 1:2 Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper room that was in Samaria, and was sick. So he sent messengers, and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover of this sickness.”
- 2 Kings 5:5 The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
- 2 Kings 5:15 He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”
- 2 Kings 8:7-9 Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick. He was told, “The man of God has come here.” The king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’ ” So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him, and said, “Your son Benhadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’ ”
- Luke 7:2-3 A certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and at the point of death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and save his servant.
- John 4:47-48 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”
- John 11:3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, in thine hand.
Hebrew, in thine hand.
Or, wafers.
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According to the custom when they went to ask counsel of Prophets, 1 Sam. 9:7.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ki 14:3 And take with thee ten loaves, and…
1Ki 14:3 And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.
Ver. 3. And take with thee ten loaves.] A poor country present, that she might seem none other than a plain country woman, yet willing to show her thankfulness.
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And cracknels.] Or, Plain cakes; Heb., Punctata, tenues placentulas punctis respersas.
And a cruse of honey.] Or, Bottle, a narrow mouthed vessel, that when it is emptied soundeth bakbuk, that is the Hebrew word here used. See the like in Job 39:30, where the vultures are said to glut glut blood, by an onomatopoeia.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain A cruse of honey; a present, after the manner,…
A cruse of honey; a present, after the manner, Jdg 13:17; 1Sa 9:7,8; 2Ki 5:15; 8:8; but mean, as became an ordinary country woman, which she personated.
And go to him, to inquire the event of this sickness, as the following words imply.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Jeroboam's wife did so, and went to Shiloh,…
And Jeroboam's wife did so, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Abijah,.... Disguised herself, and took this long journey, and found the prophet's house; which she did partly in obedience to her husband, and partly from affection to her child: but Abijah could not see; her or anybody else that came into the room to him:
for his eyes were set by reason of his age; or "stood" fixed and immovable, as the eyes of blind men are; or the nerves and muscles of his eyes stood within the holes thereof, so that he could not see objects.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And take - A present, after the manner, but…
And take - A present, after the manner, but mean, as became an ordinary country woman, which she personated. It had been more pious to inquire, why God contended with him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Ten loaves] Probably common or household bread.
Verse 3. Ten loaves] Probably common or household bread.
Cracknels] נקדים nikkuddim, spotted, or perforated bread; thin cakes, pierced through with many holes, the same as is called Jews' bread to the present day, and used by them at the passover. It was customary to give presents to all great personages; and no person consulted a prophet without bringing something in his hand.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ki 14:3. Take with thee ten loaves, &c. —…
1Ki 14:3. Take with thee ten loaves, &c. — It was usual for those that went to inquire of a prophet to make him some present as a token of their respect for him, 1Sa 9:7. The present which she was here directed to take, was of such things as suited the disguise in which she was to go, and were calculated to make Ahijah think her a country woman rather than a queen. And go to him — To inquire the event of this sickness, as the following words imply. It would have been more pious to have inquired why God contended with him; to have desired the prophet to pray for him, and to have cast away his idols; then the child might have been restored to him, as his hand was: “but most people,” says Henry, “would rather be told their fortune, than told their faults, or their duty.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain See the marginal reference The presents here were selected…
See the marginal reference The presents here were selected for the purpose of deception, being such as a poor country person would have been likely to bring. Jeroboam counted also on Ahijah’s blindness 1Ki 14:4 as favoring his plan of deception (compare Gen 27:1, Gen 27:22).
Cracknels - See the margin. The Hebrew word is thought to mean a kind of cake which crumbled easily.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Cracknels. Hebrew nikkudim, "cakes full of holes," &c., Josue…
Cracknels. Hebrew nikkudim, "cakes full of holes," &c., Josue ix. 12. (Calmet) --- Septuagint give a double translation, "cakes and raisins." Arabic, "fruits." Syriac adds "dried." It was customary to make presents to the prophets, 1 Kings ix. 7. (Calmet) --- But these were mean, that the woman might not be known. (Du Hamel) --- It is not said that Ahias deigned to receive them. (St. Jerome in Mic. iii.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and…
And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him--This was a present in unison with the peasant character she assumed. Cracknels are a kind of sweet seed-cake. The prophet was blind, but having received divine premonition of the pretended countrywoman's coming, he addressed her as the queen the moment she appeared, apprised her of the calamities which, in consequence of the ingratitude of Jeroboam, his apostasy, and outrageous misgovernment of Israel, impended over their house, as well as over the nation which too readily followed his idolatrous innovations.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Cracknels — נקדים, seems to denote a small…
3. Cracknels — נקדים, seems to denote a small sprinkled or punctured cake, baked hard for the purpose of keeping well during a long journey. Such small hard-baked biscuit are still used by the common people in the East. Compare Jos_9:5, where the word is erroneously rendered mouldy. The bread, the cracknels, and the honey were to be used as honorary presents for the prophet, according to the customs of the times. See note on 1Sa_9:7.
What shall become of the child — Henry well calls attention to the “notion of fatality” evinced in this inquiry of Jeroboam, and also in that of Ahaziah, (2Ki_1:2,) and that of Ben-hadad. 2Ki_8:8. They inquire simply what the end will be, not what means they should use for recovery.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. cracknels] The word so rendered is found only…
3. cracknels] The word so rendered is found only here and in Jos_9:5, of the bread of the Gibeonites, which became mouldy. Some take the word there in the sense of crumbling, so dry that it crumbled into bits. In the present passage however it must mean a sort of cake, perhaps dry baked. The whole of the present which the queen was to take with her was such as a woman of humble position would bring. The traditional interpretation of the Talmud makes the word to mean small cakes about the size of half an egg. The LXX. (Alex.) adds as explanatory, that they were for the prophet’s children.
and a cruse] The word only occurs here and in Jer_19:1; Jer_19:10, where it is rendered ‘bottle’.
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he shall tell thee what shall become of the child] It reveals to us a singular condition of mind, when we see the king confident in the prophet’s power of foretelling the future even in the case of an individual life, and yet thinking that the queen could go to him with her question and he not know who was making the inquiry.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) And take.—The presentation of this offering, designedly simple…
(3) And take.—The presentation of this offering, designedly simple and rustic in character, accords with the custom (1Sa_9:7-8) of approaching the prophet at all times with some present, however trifling. In itself an act simply of homage, it would easily degenerate into the treatment of the prophetic function as a mere matter of merchandise. (See above, 1Ki_13:7.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And take with thee Heb. in thine hand ten…
And take with thee Heb. in thine hand ten loaves Ten would seem to have been a usual number. (1Sa_17:18) On the subject of gifts or fees to prophets, judges, etc., see on Jos_9:5, Jos_9:12, where Gesenius would render "crumbs." Mouldy bread would hardly be taken as a present. These cakes, according to the LXX, Cod. Alex., were for the prophet"s children and a cruse i.e. , leather bottle, qBuqB Bakbuk, is clearly an onomatopoetic word, suggested by the bubbling noise of liquids in emptying of honey Spices and other delicacies were often given as presents, and honey was a special product of the country. (Exo_3:8; Deu_8:8; 2Sa_17:29) The honey sent by Jacob to Joseph was probably "honey of grapes". The present was purposely a poor one, for the sake of maintaining the deception; i.e., it was a part of the disguise, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of Heb. be to the child . At first it strikes us as strange that Jeroboam merely asks what the result will be. He does not petition, that is to say, as in 1Ki_13:6, for a cure. But we find the same peculiarity, which some would explain by the fatalism of the East, in 2Ki_1:2, and ch. 8:9, In the present instance, however, no such explanation is needed. For
(1) Jeroboam could hardly ask a favour of a prophet of Jehovah, or hope that it would be granted if he did, and
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(2) if, as he feared, the sickness was judicial, it would be useless to ask for healing. The infatuation which insisted on a disguise for the purpose of deceiving the prophet, who nevertheless was believed to be able to divine the issue of the sickness, is very characteristic, and has had many parallels since.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:3 It was customary to take a gift to…
14:3 It was customary to take a gift to a prophet when seeking his counsel (2 Kgs 5:5; 8:8). King Jeroboam’s wife took everyday commodities to supplement her disguise.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.