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Selected Verse: Psalms 81:16 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Ps 81:16	King James	He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

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Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
He should have fed them also - He would have given them prosperity, and their land would have produced abundantly of the necessities - even of the luxuries - of life. This is in accordance with the usual promises of the Scriptures, that obedience to God will be followed by national temporal prosperity. See Deu 32:13-14; Ti1 4:8; Psa 37:11. Compare the notes at Mat 5:5. With the finest of the wheat - Margin, as in Hebrew, with the fat of wheat. The meaning is, the best of the wheat - as the words fat and fatness are often used to denote excellence and abundance. Gen 27:28, Gen 27:39; Job 36:16; Psa 36:8; Psa 63:5; Psa 65:11. And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee - Palestine abounded with bees, and honey was a favorite article of food. Gen 43:11; Deu 8:8; Deu 32:13; Sa1 14:25-26; Isa 7:15; Eze 16:13; Mat 3:4. Much of that which was obtained was wild honey, deposited by the bees in the hollows of trees, and as it would seem in the caverns of the rocks. Much of it was gathered also from rocky regions, and this was regarded as the most delicate and valuable. I do not know the cause of this, nor why honey in high and rocky countries should be more pure and white than that obtained from other places; but the whitest and the most pure and delicate honey that I have ever seen I found at Chamouni in Switzerland. Dr. Thomson (land and the Book, vol. ii. p. 362) says of the rocky region in the vicinity of Timnath, that "bees were so abundant in a wood at no great distance from this spot that the honey dropped down from the trees on the ground;" and that "he explored densely-wooded gorges in Hermon and in Southern Lebanon where wild bees are still found, both in trees and in the clefts of the rocks." The meaning here is plain, that, if Israel had been obedient to God, he would have blessed them with abundance - with the richest and most coveted productions of the field. Pure religion - obedience to God - morality - temperance, purity, honesty, and industry, such as religion requires - are always eminently favorable to individual and national prosperity; and if a man or a nation desired to be most prospered, most successful in the lawful and proper objects of individual or national existence, and most happy, nothing would tend more to conduce to it than those virtues which piety enjoins and cultivates. Individuals and nations, even in respect to temporal prosperity, are most unwise, as well as most wicked, when they disregard the laws of God, and turn away from the precepts and the spirit of religion. It is true of nations, as it is of individuals, that "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is," Ti1 4:8.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

He should have fed them also - He would have given them prosperity, and their land would have produced abundantly of the necessities - even of the luxuries - of life. This is in accordance with the usual promises of the Scriptures, that obedience to God will be followed by national temporal prosperity. See Deu 32:13-14; Ti1 4:8; Psa 37:11. Compare the notes at Mat 5:5.

With the finest of the wheat - Margin, as in Hebrew, with the fat of wheat. The meaning is, the best of the wheat - as the words fat and fatness are often used to denote excellence and abundance. Gen 27:28, Gen 27:39; Job 36:16; Psa 36:8; Psa 63:5; Psa 65:11.

And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee - Palestine abounded with bees, and honey was a favorite article of food. Gen 43:11; Deu 8:8; Deu 32:13; Sa1 14:25-26; Isa 7:15; Eze 16:13; Mat 3:4. Much of that which was obtained was wild honey, deposited by the bees in the hollows of trees, and as it would seem in the caverns of the rocks. Much of it was gathered also from rocky regions, and this was regarded as the most delicate and valuable. I do not know the cause of this, nor why honey in high and rocky countries should be more pure and white than that obtained from other places; but the whitest and the most pure and delicate honey that I have ever seen I found at Chamouni in Switzerland. Dr. Thomson (land and the Book, vol. ii. p. 362) says of the rocky region in the vicinity of Timnath, that "bees were so abundant in a wood at no great distance from this spot that the honey dropped down from the trees on the ground;" and that "he explored densely-wooded gorges in Hermon and in Southern Lebanon where wild bees are still found, both in trees and in the clefts of the rocks."

The meaning here is plain, that, if Israel had been obedient to God, he would have blessed them with abundance - with the richest and most coveted productions of the field. Pure religion - obedience to God - morality - temperance, purity, honesty, and industry, such as religion requires - are always eminently favorable to individual and national prosperity; and if a man or a nation desired to be most prospered, most successful in the lawful and proper objects of individual or national existence, and most happy, nothing would tend more to conduce to it than those virtues which piety enjoins and cultivates. Individuals and nations, even in respect to temporal prosperity, are most unwise, as well as most wicked, when they disregard the laws of God, and turn away from the precepts and the spirit of religion. It is true of nations, as it is of individuals, that "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is," Ti1 4:8.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Honey - With all pleasant and precious fruits.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
With the finest of the wheat - מחלב חטה mecheleb chittah; literally, with the fat of wheat, as in the margin. Honey out of the rock - And he fed thaim of the grese of whete: And of the hony stane he thaim filled. Old Psalter. Thus paraphrased: "He fed thaim with the body of Criste and gastely understandyng; and of hony that ran of the stane, that is, of the wisedome that is swete to the hert." Several of the fathers understand this place of Christ.

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⁸ For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

⁴ And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

¹³ Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

¹⁵ Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

²⁵ And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground.
²⁶ And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath.

¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

⁸ A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

¹¹ And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down to the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:

¹¹ Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

⁵ My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

⁸ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

¹⁶ Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.

³⁹ And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;

²⁸ Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:

⁵ Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

⁸ For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
¹⁴ Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.