What Does Proverbs 5:19 Mean?
Let her be a loving hind, and a favored mountain goat; let her breasts drench you at all times, and always reel in her love.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “ravished” also appears in the next verse about the stranger, so the passage places the same intoxicating desire in two different bonds.
THE MEANING
Your beloved is both a bodily delight and a lasting attachment: her breasts satisfy you at every time, and her love keeps you absorbed. Desire here is intimate, embodied, and sustained within the bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That devoted love must be passionless: the verse speaks of a woman’s body and love as a source of sustained delight.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁגֶּה
tishgeh
GROWS FROM
שגה
shagah
To wander or go astray; in this setting, to reel or become intoxicated.
“reel” in this verse is tishgeh. The poem uses this verb for delight in the wife here and repeats it for desire directed toward a stranger in the next verse. Its sense of both intoxication and wandering lets the surrounding relationship give the desire its direction.
ALSO GROWS
shagah: To wander or err.
שָׁגָה
The movement away from a path remains audible beneath the KJV’s “ravished.”
shogeh: One who strays or is deceived.
שֹׁגֶה
Proverbs 20:1 uses this form for someone deceived by strong drink, showing the root’s range from intoxication to misdirection.
יְרַוֻּךָ
yəravvukha
GROWS FROM
רוה
rawah
To be sated, drink one’s fill, or saturate.
“drench” in this verse is yəravvukha. The verb behind “satisfy” carries the image of drinking to fullness. Bodily pleasure appears here as a palpable, sustaining abundance.
ALSO GROWS
rawah: To be sated or drink one’s fill.
רָוָה
This base form makes the verse’s satisfaction feel like fullness that reaches the body.
hirwah: To saturate or give drink to fullness.
הִרְוָה
This causative form echoes the verse’s image of her breasts bringing the beloved to fullness.
חֵן
chen
GROWS FROM
חנן
chanan
To show favor or act graciously.
“favored mountain goat” in this verse is chen. The image of the “pleasant roe” carries more than attractiveness: the Hebrew adds the sense of favor. The beloved appears as one received with delight and favor.
ALSO GROWS
chanan: To show favor or regard graciously.
חָנַן
This verb opens up the favor contained in the KJV’s “pleasant.”
channun: Gracious, showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This related form keeps favor present in the verse’s portrait of the beloved.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places embodied desire within lasting, mutual devotion.
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.How fair is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! And the scent of your oils than all spices!Let the husband give to the wife what is owed in goodwill, and likewise the wife to the husband.THE THREAD
And why do you reel, my son, with a stranger woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?Proverbs 5:20 repeats the Hebrew verb behind “ravished,” now for desire directed toward a stranger. The paired lines locate the distinction in where desire attaches: within the beloved bond or in pursuit of a stranger.
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