Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Luke 15:16

16. would fain have filled--rather, "was fain to fill," ate greedily of the only food he could get.

the husks--"the hulls of a leguminous plant which in the East is the food of cattle and swine, and often the nourishment of the poorest in times of distress" [Stier].

no man gave ... him--not this food, for that he had, but anything better (Jr 30:14). This was his lowest depth--perishing unpitied, alone in the world, and ready to disappear from it unmissed! But this is just the blessed turning-point; midnight before dawn of day (2Ch 12:8; 33:11-13; Jr 2:19).