Barnes New Testament Notes

Verse 33. And while the day was coming on. At daybreak. It was before they had sufficient light to discern what they should do.

To take meat. Food. The word meat was formerly used to denote food of any kind.

That ye have tarried. That you have remained or been fasting.

Having taken nothing. No regular meal. It cannot mean that they had lived entirely without food; but that they had been so much in danger, so constantly engaged, and so anxious about their safety, that they had taken no regular meal; and that what they had taken had been at irregular intervals, and had been a scanty allowance. "Appian speaks of an army which for twenty days together had neither food nor sleep; by which he must mean that they neither made full meals, nor slept whole nights together. The same interpretation must be given to this phrase." (Doddridge.) The effect of this must have been, that they would be weak and exhausted, and little able to endure the fatigues which yet remained.

{*} "meat" "food" {+} "tarried" "waited"