2 Samuel 17:29
And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.
And honey and butter,.... Honey was much in use with the ancients; Homer {b} 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 {c}; and this and butter were pretty much the food of the people in Judea; see Isaiah 7:15;
and sheep; with which and goats the land of Gilead abounded; see Song of Solomon 4:1;
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.
{b} 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.
{c} Justin e Trogo, l. 2. c. 2.