Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.

Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.

They brought barley also and straw for the horses, and beasts, to the place where the king was, according as it was appointed them.

And the barley, and the straw for the horses and coursers, they brought to the place where the superintendents were, every man according to his charge.

And the barley and the straw, for horses and for dromedaries, they bring in unto the place where they are, each according to his ordinance.

And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and the carriage-horses, to the right place, every man as he was ordered.

Also, they brought barley and straw for the horses and beasts of burden, to the place where the king was, just as it was appointed to them.

Barley is to this day in the East the common food of horses.
Dromedaries - Coursers. The animal intended is neither a camel nor a mule, but a swift horse.
The place where the officers were - Rather, "places where the horses and coursers were," i. e., to the different cities where they were lodged.

And dromedaries - The word רכש rechesh, which we translate thus, is rendered beasts, or beasts of burden, by the Vulgate; mares by the Syriac and Arabic; chariots by the Septuagint; and race-horses by the Chaldee. The original word seems to signify a very swift kind of horse, and race-horse or post-horse is probably its true meaning. To communicate with so many distant provinces, Solomon had need of many animals of this kind.

Barley also, and straw for the horses and dromedaries,.... Or rather mules, by comparing the passage with 2-Chronicles 9:24; the particular kind of creatures meant is not agreed on; though all take them to be a swifter sort of creatures than horses; or the swifter of horses, as race horses or posts horses: barley was for their provender, that being the common food of horses in those times and countries, and in others, as Bochart (h) has shown from various writers; and in the Misnah (i) it is called the food of beasts; and Solomon is said to have every day his own horses two hundred thousand Neapolitan measures of called "tomboli" (k); so the Roman soldiers, the horse were allowed a certain quantity of barley for their horses every morning, and sometimes they had money instead of it, which they therefore called "hordiarium" (l) and the "straw" was for the litter of them: these
brought they unto the place; where the officers were; not where the king was, as the Vulgate Latin version; where Solomon was, as the Arabic version, that is, in Jerusalem; nor
where the officers were; in their respective jurisdictions, as our version supplies it, which would be bringing them to themselves; but to the place where the beasts were, whether in Jerusalem, or in any, other parts of the kingdom:
every man according to his charge: which he was monthly to perform.
(h) Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 9. col. 158, 159. Vid. Homer. Iliad. 4. ver. 196. and Iliad. 8. ver. 560. (i) Sotah, c. 2. sect. 1. (k) Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 10. 2. (l) Vid. Valtrinum de re Militar. Roman. l. 3. c. 15. p. 236.

Barley . . . and straw--Straw is not used for litter, but barley mixed with chopped straw is the usual fodder of horses.
dromedaries--one-humped camels, distinguished for their great fleetness.