1 Samuel 8:13
in 1 Samuel 8And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
KJV
And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
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This verse in 1 Samuel 8
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd he will take your daughters to be confectionaries,.... Such as deal in spices, and mix them, and make them up in various forms very agreeable to the taste. Men are commonly in our countries and times employed in such arts, but it seems this was the business of women in those times and places.
This site's exposition
to be confectionaries, and to be cooks
on 1 Samuel 8:13-15
Daughters follow sons, taken to be confectionaries, cooks and bakers in the king's kitchens, a household conscription answering the military one just named. Fields, vineyards and oliveyards, the best of them, pass to the king's servants, and a tenth of the seed and the vineyards goes to his officers, so the tithe once brought to the Lord's house is matched by a human king's table. The tenth named here anticipates the tenth of the flocks at verse 17, and between the two the king takes what the law had reserved for God.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
A commentator
Apostolic ConstitutionsConstitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 2 · Written before 380.
proposed
Account these worthy to be esteemed your rulers and your kings, and bring them tribute as to kings; for by you they and their families ought to be maintained. As Samuel made constitutions for the people concerning a king, in the first book of Kings, and Moses did so concerning priests in Leviticus, so do we also make constitutions for you concerning bishops. For if there the multitude distributed the inferior services in proportion to so great a king, ought not therefore the bishop much more now to receive of you those things which are determined by God for the sustenance of himself and of the rest of the clergy belonging to him? But if we may add somewhat further, let the bishop receive more than the other received of old: for he only managed the affairs of the soldiery, being entrusted with war and peace for the preservation of men's bodies; but the other is entrusted with the exercise of the priestly office in relation to God, in order to preserve both body and soul from dangers. By how much, therefore, the soul is more valuable than the body, so much the priestly office is beyond the kingly. For it binds and looses those that are worthy of punishment or of remission. Wherefore you ought to love the bishop as your father, and fear him as your king, and honour him as your lord, bringing to him your fruits and the works of your hands, for a blessing upon you, giving to him your first-fruits, and your tithes, and your oblations, and your gifts, as to the priest of God; the first-fruits of your wheat, and wine, and oil, and autumnal fruits, and wool, and all things which the Lord God gives thee. And thy offering shall be accepted as a savour of a sweet smell to the Lord thy God; and the Lord will bless the works of thy hands, and will multiply the good things of the land. "For a blessing is upon the head of him that giveth."
And observe the wisdom of the prophet, or rather the loving kindness of God. For because he wished to turn them from [their design,] bringing together a number of grievous things he asserted them of their future king, as, for instance, that he would make their wives grind at the mill, the men shepherds and muleteers; for he went through all the service appertaining to the kingdom with minuteness. But when he saw that they would not be hindered by any of these things, but were incurably distempered; he thus both spareth them and composeth their king to gentleness.
I must now … express my disapproval of the possession of too many slaves. People resort to servants to escape work and waiting on themselves.… The Word has given a complete description of these offenders when he promised through the prophet Samuel that the people who were demanding a king would have not a kind master but one who would be an unfeeling tyrant, given over to immorality, "who will take," he said, "your daughters to make him ointments and to be his cooks and bakers," who will rule by law of war and not be zealous for the administration of peace.
The Medieval Church2 voices
He will also make your daughters his ointment-makers, etc. He will make your synagogues, or the souls of the deceived, or certainly thoughts once free from pure chastity, to favor his depraved iniquities with wicked flattery; the prophet who abhors this worst kind of ointment …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 4 · Written before 604.
proposed
What then is the meaning of what he adds: that the daughters of the Israelites would become perfumers, cooks, and bakers? But by the term "daughters" sometimes weakness is signified, sometimes fruitfulness. Who then are the daughters of the Israelites, if not chosen souls, prepared for the conception of the divine Word? They become the king's perfumers: because as they advance through the instruction of their preacher, they receive within themselves the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit, through which they can wholesomely heal the brokenhearted.
3 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 1 · Written before 604.
proposed
9. When subjection is sought by carnal men, assuredly whatever is commanded them is burdensome, even if it is not difficult: because since they have it from the swelling of pride that they follow the judgment of their own will, whatever opposes their deliberation they consider most grievous. But indeed when harsh and contrary things are commanded, what a weight of burden is that! What swelling of heart! When they could scarcely bear even pleasant and light things unwillingly—things which, if they had been willing, they would have borne most easily.
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 2 · Written before 604.
proposed
7. There follows: He will also make your daughters perfumers, and cooks, and bakers. By the name of daughters, the weak minds placed within holy Church are designated. These become the king's perfumers: because when they behold carnal rulers in the height of passing glory, they endeavor to soothe them with flatteries. The Psalmist, indeed rejecting the use of these ointments, says: Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Psalm 141:5). The daughters therefore become perfumers: because when the weak fear to displease carnal rulers, they soften with blandishment the ferocity to which they are subject through fear. And it should be noted that the sons are said first to be taken by the king, and then made horsemen and centurions or makers of arms: but the daughters are not said to be taken, but simply to be made perfumers and bakers. For to be taken implies violence. The sons therefore are taken, because the strong are overthrown with difficulty. When therefore the daughters are said not to be taken but to be made perfumers, what else does this mean except that those who are weak in goodness are easily scattered by the examples of the wicked? They also become the king's cooks and bakers: because those who serve tyrants by flattering them, while they please them by showing favor, offer them food as it were. For the cooks are those who cook at the hearth what kings eat. They are therefore cooks who, through services of favor, kindle the swelling of pride in the carnal ruler's heart: so that he receives flatteries all the more boldly, inasmuch as they prepare for him, as it were, more delicate foods by the fire of aroused devotion. They also become bakers: because when they praise a reprobate life, they strengthen the carnal mind of the tyrant to practice wickedness.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
he will take your daughters to be confectionaries--Cookery, baking, and the kindred works are, in Eastern countries, female employment, and thousands of young women are occupied with these offices in the palaces even of petty princes.
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How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
And to produce his implements of war. To train them as craftsmen, blacksmiths, and carpenters.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בְּנוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם | benoteikhem | daughters your | H1323 → | 588 times |
| יִקָּ֑ח | yikach | he will take | H3947 → | 966 times |
| לְרַקָּח֥וֹת | lerakachot | to perfumers | H7548 → | |
| וּלְטַבָּח֖וֹת | uletabachot | and to cooks | H2879 → | |
| וּלְאֹפֽוֹת׃ | uleofot | and to bakers | H644 → |
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
בְּנוֹתֵיכֶ֖םdaughters your
benoteikhemH1323 →588 times
יִקָּ֑חhe will take
yikachH3947 →966 times
לְרַקָּח֥וֹתto perfumers
lerakachotH7548 →
וּלְטַבָּח֖וֹתand to cooks
uletabachotH2879 →
וּלְאֹפֽוֹת׃and to bakers
uleofotH644 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About 1 Samuel

This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Apostolic Constitutions, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 2; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 3; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 4; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 1; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on 2 Corinthians 24; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
