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Pieces of silver, supposed to be shekels; and the common shekel being valued at fifteen pence of English money, this amounts to five pounds; a vast price, especially for that which had on it so little meat, and that unwholesome, and unclean by law, Lev_11:3; though necessity might seem to excuse their violation of that law.
A cab; a measure containing twenty-four eggs.
Dove’s dung; which they used not for fire, (for he is speaking here only of the scarcity of food,) but for food; which, if it seem incredible, it must be considered, first, That famine hath constrained people to eat things as improper and unfit for nourishment as this, as dry leather, and man’s dung, as is implied Isa_36:12, and affirmed by grave historians. Secondly, That some creatures do usually eat the dung of others. Thirdly, That doves’ dung, though it be hotter than ordinary, might in other respects be fitter for nourishment than other, as being made of the best and purest grains, and having some moisture in it, &c. Fourthly, That this Hebrew word being of an obscure and doubtful signification, and no where else used, may be, and is by learned men, otherwise rendered and understood; either, first, of the corn which is found in the crops of doves; or, secondly, of the guts and other inwards of doves; or rather, thirdly, of a sort of cicer or pease, which in the Arabic language (which is near akin to the Hebrew, and from which many words are explained) is called dove’s dung; for this was a food much in use amongst the poorer Israelites, and was by all esteemed a very coarse food, and therefore fit to be joined with an ass’s head; and a cab was the usual measure of all sorts-of grains and fruits of that sort.