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Solomon's provision for one day: -

Of fine flour 30 measures, or cors. Of meal 60 ditto. Stall-fed oxen 10 Ditto from the pasture 20 Sheep 100; with harts, roebucks, fallow deer, and fat fowls. The כר cor was the same as the homer, and contained nearly seventy-six gallons, wine measure, according to Bishop Cumberland.

Sheep - צאן tson, comprehending both sheep and goats.

Harts - מאיל meaiyal, the deer.

Roebucks - צבי tsebi, the gazal, antelope, or wild goat.

Fallow deer - יחמור yachmur, the buffalo. See the notes on Deuteronomy 12:15; Deuteronomy 14:5.

Fatted fowl - אבוסים ברברים barburim abusim, I suppose, means all the wild fowls in season during each month. Michaelis derives ברברים barburim from ברא bara, which in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, signifies a field, a desert; all that is without the cities and habitations of men: hence ברא חיות cheyvath bara, wild beasts, Daniel 2:38, בר תור tor bar, wild bull; and therefore barburim may signify creatures living in the fields, woods, and deserts, which are taken by hunting, and opposed to those which are domesticated; and, consequently, may include beasts as well as fowls. Many have translated the word capons; but, query, was any such thing known among the ancient Jews? Solomon's table, therefore, was spread with all the necessaries and delicacies which the house or the field could afford.

But how immense must the number of men have been who were fed daily at the palace of the Israelitish king! Vilalpandus computes the number to be not less than forty-eight thousand, six hundred; and Calvisius makes, by estimation from the consumption of food, fifty-four thousand! These must have included all his guards, each of whom received a ration from the king's store.

Thirty measures - (margin, cors) The cor, which was the same measure as the homer, is computed, on the authority of Josephus, at 86 English gallons, on the authority of the rabbinical writers at 44. Thirty cors, even at the lower estimate, would equal 1,320 gallons, or 33 of our “sacks;” and the 90 cors of fine and coarse flour would altogether equal 99 sacks. From the quantity of flour consumed, it has been conjectured that the number of those who fed at the royal board was 14,000.

Never did the crown of Israel shine so bright, as when Solomon wore it. He had peace on all sides. Herein, his kingdom was a type of the Messiah's; for to Him it is promised that he shall have the heathen for his inheritance, and that princes shall worship him. The spiritual peace, and joy, and holy security, of all the faithful subjects of the Lord Jesus, were typified by that of Israel. The kingdom of God is not, as Solomon's was, meat and drink, but, what is infinitely better, righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The vast number of his attendants, and the great resort to him, are shown by the provision daily made. Herein Christ far outdoes Solomon, that he feeds all his subjects, not with the bread that perishes, but with that which endures to eternal life.