The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Gen. 18:6; Lev. 26:26; 1-Sam 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public bakers mentioned (Hos. 7:4, Hos. 7: 6; Jer. 37:21).
The bread was generally in the form of long or round cakes (Exo 29:23; 1-Sam 2:36), of a thinness that rendered them easily broken (Isa. 58:7; Matt. 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" (Lev. 2:4). (See BREAD.)