Genesis 18:6. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
1. Bread in the East is made from wheat or barley, rye being but little cultivated. The “fine meal” here spoken of is wheat flour finely sifted, and is considered very choice.
2. The “three measures” were equal to an ephah, which is supposed to have contained a little less than a bushel. It was an ordinary quantity for baking. See Judges 6:19; 1 Samuel 1:24; Matthew 13:33. The seah or “measure” is also mentioned in 2 Kings 7:1,16.
3. From the haste with which this bread was prepared it was evidently unleavened. The flour and water were hastily mixed, and the thin dough was either laid on heated stones, where the cakes would soon bake, or the “hearth” in the text was a smooth spot of ground on which fire had been kindled and the embers brushed off, when the dough was placed on the ground and the embers raked over it. In other way the bread would soon be ready for the guests. See also 1 Kings 17:12-13; 19:6.
Palmer, while visiting the outlying districts of Sinai, found, upon the watershed of Wady el-Hebeibeh, the remains of a large and evidently ancient encampment. “The small stones which formerly served, as they do in the present day, for hearths, in many places still showed signs of the action of fire, and on digging beneath the surface we found pieces of charcoal in great abundance.” (Desert of the Exodus, p. 258). What gives peculiar interest to this discovery is the fact that Mr. Palmer thinks that he here discovered the remains of the ancient Israelitish camp at Kibroth-Hattaavah. A detail of the reasoning by which he reaches this conclusion would be out of place here. The curious reader is referred to Palmer’s interesting work, pp. 260, 312, 507, 508.