Job 31:17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof.
It is a part of Oriental etiquette to invite others to partake of food. See note on Genesis 18:2-3 (#9). Dr. Shaw says, referring to his travels in Arabia: “No sooner was our food prepared, whether it was potted flesh boiled with rice, a lentil soup, or unleavened cakes served up with oil or honey, than one of the Arabs, (not to eat his morsel alone,) after having placed himself on the highest spot of ground in the neighborhood, calls out thrice, with a loud voice, to all his brethren, The sons of the faithful, to come and partake of it; though none of them were in view, or perhaps within a hundred miles of us. This custom, however, they maintain to be a token at least of their great benevolence, as indeed it would have been of their hospitality, provided they could have had an opportunity to show it” (Travels, Preface, p. 12).