Out of Asher his bread [shall be] fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
Ver. 20. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat.] The "heart of the wheat," as the psalmist hath it. Psa 81:16 Or, choicest bread corn. Moses expoundeth this; Asher shall "dip his foot in oil." Deu 33:24 That is, he shall dwell in "the horn of the son of oil," as the expression is. Isaiah 5:1 , marg. Or in a very fruitful corn country, which was a singular blessing, according to his name, which signifieth bliss and happiness.
He shall yield dainties for a king.] Kings use to feed of the finest. a Yet of Augustus we read, that he was never elaborate in his diet; but content with ordinary and common food. He never drank but thrice at one meal, and lived near fourscore years. Queen Elizabeth of England did seldom eat but one sort of meat, rose ever with an appetite, and lived about seventy years: King Edward VI called her by no other name than his "sweet sister Temperance." Contrarily, Sulla the Roman dictator, by surfeiting and banqueting, at last got a most miserable disease, and died full of lice. Surfeiters either dig their graves with their own teeth (the Grecians called the intemperate, ασωτους quasi ασωστους, as wanting health), or else they come to some untimely end, by the just judgment of God; as those monstrous epicures, Caligula, Heliogabalus, Geta the Emperor, who was served in with dainties by the alphabet. One while he would have anserem, anatem, aprum; another time he would have phasianum, farra, ficus; sometime again, pullum, pavonem, perdicem, porcellum, piscem, perham, &c. This was one of those Caesars who got nothing by their honour, but ut citius interficerentur.
a Newlander's Cure, by Sir Edward Vaughan. Camd., Elisab. Sabellic. Aenead., ii. Plures pereunt gula quam gladio, lancibus quam lanceis, crapula quam capulo, &c. - Heidfeld. Bauson., lib. iii. cap. 1.