PROV 5:19 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 5:1–23: Eighth lesson: Avoid the temptation to commit adultery

A summary of this lesson is: Stay away from a woman who commits adultery, or you will bitterly regret it (5:1–14). Instead, be delighted with your own wife (5:15–20), because the LORD sees everything you do and will punish wickedness (5:21–23).

Some other headings for this section are:

Advice to stay away from a woman who commits adultery

Warning About Adultery (NCV)

Avoid Adultery (GW)

Be Faithful to Your Wife (CEV)

5:19

This verse does not fit the normal pattern of two parallel lines. The first line describes the woman’s beauty by using two animal metaphors. The next two lines are similar in meaning. They urge the young man to be satisfied with his wife’s sexual charms.

^19aA loving doe, a graceful fawn—

^19bmay her breasts satisfy you always;

^19cmay you be captivated by her love forever.

In Hebrew, the last two lines are not arranged in the form of a chiasm. You will need to decide if a chiasm effectively expresses the meaning here.

5:19a

A loving doe, a graceful fawn—

She is like a female deer, beautiful/affectionate and graceful.
She is loving and beautiful, like a graceful antelope.

A loving doe, a graceful fawn: Here the wife is compared to animals that symbolize beautiful appearance and graceful movements. The first animal is a female deer or antelope. The second animal has been identified as a female deer, gazelle, or mountain goat.

loving: The word that the BSB translates here as loving may refer to the wife’s beauty. For example:

lovely (NRSV)

pretty (GNT)

According to several scholars, loving has strong sexual connotations and refers to lovemaking, so “affectionate” would also be an appropriate term to use in English.According to Fox, ʾayyelet ʾahabim “a loving doe” is literally “a doe of lovemaking” or “love-doe” (page 202). An equally valid literal translation would be “doe of lovers,” since the only other use of this form in the OT is Hosea 8:9, where it refers to hired lovers (TWOT, #29a) or “doe of loves” (masc. plur. noun). It has strong sexual connotations. Delitzsch (page 94) also says that ʾahabim always signified sensual love. This is confirmed by Garrett (page 94), who speaks of “tender affection” and Ross (page 930), who identifies the imagery as that of “intimate love in marriage.” If your language has an expression that refers to a woman’s skill in making love, you may use it here. Be sure that any term that you use is acceptable to your readers.

Some ways to translate these two metaphors are:

Change the metaphors to one or more similes. For example:
She is as lovely and graceful as a deer. (NCV)
She is like a beautiful antelope or agile mountain goat.
If it is not appropriate to compare a wife’s beauty to a deer or similar animal, translate the point of comparison without a figure of speech. For example:
She is affectionate/loving. She is also beautiful and graceful.

5:19b

may her breasts satisfy you always;

You^(sing) should always be happy/satisfied with her breasts/beauty.
Her breasts/beauty should always satisfy you.

may her breasts satisfy you always: There is a textual difference here:

The Masoretic Text has breasts. For example:
May her breasts satisfy you at all times (NRSV) (BSB, NIV, NRSV, NJB, NASB, ESV, NLT)
The LXX has “love.” For example:
Let her love always make you happy (NCV) (REB, NCV, RSV)

It is recommended that you follow option (1) because of the parallel with “bosom” in 5:20. If it is offensive in your language to speak of a woman’s breasts satisfying her husband’s sexual desires, use a euphemism or a more general term, such as beauty. For example:

Let her charms keep you happy (GNT)

5:19c

may you be captivated by her love forever.

May her love for you^(sing) completely delight you.
You should always be overjoyed/intoxicated by her love for you.

may you be captivated by her love forever: The young man is urged to be overcome with delight at making love with his wife. In Hebrew, the word captivated sometimes describes a person who “staggers” from drunkenness. Here it is used figuratively of being “drunk” with love.The primary meaning of šagah is “go astray, err” into moral error. Here it may suggest a person who strays “deliciously dazed in the ecstasies of lovemaking” (Fox, page 203). Several scholars refer to the connotation of intoxication. For example, the NET footnote says: The verb שָׁגָה (shagah) means “to swerve; to meander; to reel” as in drunkenness; it signifies a staggering gait expressing the ecstatic joy of a captivated lover. It may also mean “to be always intoxicated with her love.” See also Whybray (page 91). The GNT’s translation “let her surround you with her love” and REB’s “her love will…wrap you round” may be based on a similar Arabic verb meaning “wrapped,” as a corpse is wrapped in a shroud. According to Fox (page 203), this usage is not supported in the OT. Other ways to translate this idea are:

be infatuated always with her love (RSV)

may you be intoxicated always by her love (NRSV)

If expressions like these are not appropriate in your language, you may use a more general expression. For example:

May you always be completely delighted by the way she loves you.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

אַיֶּ֥לֶת אֲהָבִ֗ים וְֽ⁠יַעֲלַ֫ת־חֵ֥ן

deer_of loving and,a_mountain_goat_of graciousness/kindness/favour/beauty

Here Solomon speaks of how beautiful the “wife of your youth” is as if she were a doe of loves and a mountain goat of grace. The Israelites considered these two animals to be symbols of physical beauty and graceful movements. If it would be helpful, you could refer to animals that are more appropriate for this comparison in your language. If it would not be appropriate in your language to compare a woman to an animal, you could express the meaning plainly or use a simile. Alternate translation: “She is as beautiful as a doe of loves and as graceful as a goat of grace” or “she is beautiful and graceful, and she loves you”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

אַיֶּ֥לֶת אֲהָבִ֗ים

deer_of loving

Here Solomon uses the possessive form to describe a doe that is characterized by loves. The word loves is plural here, in which form it refers to sexual love. If it would be helpful in your language, you could indicate this with a different expression. Alternate translation: “A loving doe” or “A sexy doe”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

וְֽ⁠יַעֲלַ֫ת־חֵ֥ן

and,a_mountain_goat_of graciousness/kindness/favour/beauty

Here Solomon uses the possessive form to describe a mountain goat that is characterized by grace. If it would be helpful in your language, you could indicate this with a different expression. Alternate translation: “a graceful mountain goat”

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

דַּ֭דֶּי⁠הָ יְרַוֻּ֣⁠ךָ

breasts_of,her may,they_satisfy_you

Here Solomon speaks of a wife’s breasts satisfying her husband’s sexual desires as they would satisfy the thirst of a hungry baby. Here, drench refers to giving a baby a satisfying amount of milk. If it would be helpful in your language or if it would be offensive in your language to refer to breasts, then you could use a more general expression. Alternate translation: “may her bosom fill you with delight as a mother’s breasts fill her child with food” or “may her body satisfy your sexual desires”

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

תִּשְׁגֶּ֥ה תָמִֽיד

intoxicated always

Here Solomon speaks of the exhilarating delight of the love that a man should have for his wife as if he were staggering like an intoxicated person. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “may you continually revel” or “may you continually lose yourself”

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.