What Does Proverbs 7:18 Mean?
Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; let us caress ourselves with loves.
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
Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.THE KEY
The Hebrew makes this an invitation to drink oneself full, while its own promise expires at morning.
THE MEANING
The invitation makes desire sound like abundance and relief: fullness now, shared pleasure through the night. Yet its own horizon is morning, so the solace it promises is satiation with an ending built into it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A feeling of fullness is not proof of lasting fulfillment; the offer itself limits its consolation to one night.
THE ROOT
נִרְוֶה
nirveh
GROWS FROM
רוה
r-w-h
To drink one’s fill, be saturated, or be watered.
“drink our fill of love” in this verse is nirveh. The verb literally evokes drinking to fullness, so desire is presented as something that can saturate. The same root can describe a watered garden or an overflowing cup, while this invitation confines its promised fullness to the night.
ALSO GROWS
ravēh: Watered or saturated, as in a watered garden.
רָוֶה
Isaiah 58:11 uses this form for a garden sustained by water, widening the image beyond a single moment of appetite.
revayah: Abundance or overflowing fullness.
רְוָיָה
In Psalm 23:5 it describes the cup that runs over, another image of being filled to abundance.
דֹּדִים
dodim
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved affection, including caresses or sensual expressions of love.
The first word for love is dōdîm, which can name caresses or expressions of sensual affection. The line gives desire a bodily register before turning to its broader language of love.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved or lover.
דּוֹד
Song of Songs 5:16 calls the beloved dōd, showing the intimate affection contained in the word family.
dōdîm: Caresses or expressions of love.
דֹּדִים
Song of Songs 1:2 uses this form for love more desirable than wine, echoing the sensual promise in this verse.
בָּאֳהָבִים
ba'ohavim
GROWS FROM
אהב
ʾ-h-b
To love or have affection for.
“loves” in this verse is ba'ohavim. This second term comes from the broad root for love and affection, layering that language over the sensual dōdîm. The invitation makes appetite sound like love’s fullness.
ALSO GROWS
ʾahav: To love.
אָהַב
Deuteronomy 6:5 uses this verb for loving the LORD with all the heart, soul, and might.
ahavah: Love or affection.
אַהֲבָה
Song of Songs 8:7 says many waters cannot quench this love, showing the root’s wider range of attachment.
THE PATTERN
Temptation makes desired fulfillment feel abundant while hiding the cost or limit built into its promise.
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in hiding is pleasant. But he does not perceive that the dead are there; her called ones are in the depths of Sheol.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured. Then craving, when it has conceived, gives birth to falling short; and falling short, when it is full-grown, bears death.THE THREAD
And the LORD shall lead you continually, and fill your living soul in the parched places, and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a drenched garden, and like a spring of water whose waters never fail.Both verses use רוה (ravah), the root of saturation: Proverbs offers it as a night of desire ending at morning, while Isaiah pictures a garden continually watered. The shared root opens the image from brief filling to sustained nourishment.
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