Proverbs 21:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

He that loveth wine and oil— Dr. Pococke, in describing his journey to Jerusalem, after his landing at Joppa, tells us, that he was conveyed to an encampment of Arabs, who entertained him as well as they could, making him cakes, and bringing him fine oil, in which they usually dip their bread. When he says usually, he means, I presume, when they are more elegantly regaled; for the eastern people often make use of bread with nothing more than salt, or some such trifling addition, such as summer savory, dried and powdered, which, mixed with salt, is eaten by many of the people of Aleppo as a seasoning to their bread, according to the account of Dr. Russell. The Septuagint translation of Job 6:6 seems to refer to the same practice, when it renders the first part of that verse, Will bread be eaten without salt? It is to the same sort of frugality also, I suppose, that Solomon refers, when he says in the present verse, He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. One would have thought the oil with their bread, which answers to our bread and butter, should not have been thought extravagant; but the account given by Dr. Russell shews that it is a piece of delicacy in the east, the expence of which they frequently avoid. See Observations, p. 128.