419. Eating Alone

Job 31:17  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 13
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Job 31:1717Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (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 18:2-32And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: (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).