Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
Solomon had said in the foregoing verse that he who has not a large estate, or a great income, but a cheerful spirit, has a continual feast; Christian contentment, and joy in God, make the life easy and pleasant; now here he tells us what is necessary to that cheerfulness of spirit which will furnish a man with a continual feast, though he has but...
Commenting on Proverbs 15:16-17
Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is,.... What Plautus (i) calls "asperam et terrestrem caenam", "a harsh and earthly supper", made of what grows out of the earth; which is got without much cost or care, and dressed with little trouble; a traveller's dinner, as the word (k) signifies, and a poor one too to travel upon, such as is easily obtained, and presently cooked, and comes cheap.
dinner--or, "allowance" (Kg2 25:30) -- of herbs--and that the plainest. and hatred--(compare Pro 10:12, Pro 10:18).