Carry these ten cheeses— In the Hebrew החלב חריצי charitsei hechalab, ten cheeses of milk; upon which the author of the Observations remarks, that the word can hardly be imagined to signify cheeses directly, since milk is added in the original, and cheeses of milk is so odd an expression, all cheese being made of milk of some kind or other. Our translators were so struck with this, that they have suppressed the word milk, as perfectly superfluous. But as the word signifies a rolling instrument used for threshing, may we not suppose that what Jesse bade his son David carry to the officer of the army were ten baskets, somewhat of the shape of their threshing-instruments, in which there was coagulated milk? Baskets made of rushes, or the dwarf palm, are the cheese-vats of Barbary: into these they put the curds, and binding them up close press them. But the eastern cheeses are of so very soft a consistence after their being pressed, and even when they are brought to be eaten, that Sandys imagined they were not pressed at all; "a beastly kind of unpressed cheese, that lies in a lump," being his description of this part of the eastern diet. Now, if the cheeses sent by Jesse were as soft and tender as those of which Sandys speaks, can we imagine any way more commodious for carrying them to the army, than in the rush-baskets in which they were formed? Nor would such baskets of coagulated milk have been an improper present for an officer in the army of Saul, notwithstanding. Sandys's opinion of it: for, by comparing some passages of Dr. Pococke together, it appears, that such sort of cheese is used in the east at this time at the more elegant tables of persons of distinction. Thus, describing the hospitality of the Arabs in Egypt, he says, "the middling people amongst them and the Coptis live much poorer. I have often sat down with them only to bread, raw onions, and a seed pounded and put in oil, which they call serich, produced from an herb called simsim, into which they dip their bread:" Yet, poor as these repasts are, the chief difference betwixt them and the collation prepared for the governor of Faiume, with whom he travelled, and of whose way of living he speaks with honour, consisted chiefly, according to his own description, in the addition of new cheese; for he says, it was of bread, raw onions, and a sort of salt pickled cheese. Ten cheeses then of this sort, were by no means an improper present for Jesse to make on this occasion. See Observations, p. 155.
And take their pledge— By this, says Houbigant, I understand that which they gave for the purchase of this food. Therefore Jesse commands David to run, 1 Samuel 17:17 that he might the sooner receive the pledge or price. Thus Kimchi, whom Cappel follows, understands it; and much better than Symmachus; thou shalt receive their hire, or thou shalt bring their wages to me; for it does not appear that the soldiers of Israel at that time received wages from the king. Some understand it only to express, thou shalt bring me word how they do. The original word ערב oreb, signifies a sponsion or security, and agrees best with Houbigant's interpretation.