The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Genesis 18:6; Leviticus 26:26; 1 Samuel 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public bakers mentioned (Hosea 7:4,6; Jeremiah 37:21).

The bread was generally in the form of long or round cakes (Exodus 29:23; 1 Samuel 2:36), of a thinness that rendered them easily broken (Isaiah 58:7; Matthew 14:19; 26:26; Acts 20:11). Common ovens were generally used; at other times a jar was half-filled with hot pebbles, and the dough was spread over them. Hence we read of "cakes baken on the coals" (1 Kings 19:6), and "baken in the oven" (Leviticus 2:4). (See BREAD .)

BAKE, v.t.

14

1. To heat, dry and harden, as in an oven or furnace, or under coals of fire; to dress and prepare for food, in a close place heated; as, to bake bread.

2. To dry and harden by heat, either in an oven, kiln or furnace, or by the solar rays; as, to bake bricks; to bake the ground.

BAKE, v.i. To do the work of baking; as, she brews, washes and bakes.

2. To be baked; to dry and harden in heat; as, the bread bakes, the ground bakes in a hot sun.

Reference to baking is found in (Leviticus 26:26; 1 Samuel 8:13; 2 Samuel 13:8; Jeremiah 7:18; 37:21; Hosea 7:4-7)