Ladies and gentlemen, if there remains any doubt about what Proverbs 5:19 refers to, it’s hereby laid to rest.
In my post, Am I twisting Scripture to justify my kinky fetish? I state how extremely close to 100% certainty I am that the verse refers to husband breastfeeding. Now I’m absolutely positive.
Dr. Bruce Waltke is an Old Testament scholar. According to Our Daily Bread Christian University, he “is the Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He received his A.B. from Houghton College, a Th.M. and Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. An expert in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, he was also a postdoctoral fellow at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.
Over his distinguished teaching career of more than 50 years, Dr. Waltke has established himself as one of the preeminent scholars in Old Testament Studies. He has held professorships at Dallas Theological Seminary (1958–1976), Criswell Bible Institute (1970–1976), Regent College in Vancouver (1976–current) where he is Professor Emeritus, Westminster Theological Seminary (1985–1991), and most recently at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida (1996–2010). He is a professor at Knox Theological Seminary where he continues his teaching and research. Additionally, Dr. Waltke has been a visiting professor or guest lecturer at institutions around the globe including Bethel Seminary, Columbia International University, Covenant Theological Seminary, Denver Seminary, Geneva Bible College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Vancouver School of Theology, Western Seminary, and Wheaton College.
In addition to his teaching appointments, Dr. Waltke has helped pastor several churches over the years and has spoken at numerous Bible conferences across the United States and Canada. He has also been very active in parachurch ministries including InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ. Furthermore, he has made contributions to biblical archaeology as an area field supervisor at excavations at Tel Gezer, Israel, and has led several field study trips to the Middle East and the classical world. He has also overseen the doctoral studies of hundreds of students, and he served as the President of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1975. He helped in the translation and production of over a dozen versions of the Bible including the New American Standard Bible, The New Geneva Study Bible, and the New International Version, and is an honorary member of the committee responsible for Today’s New International Version.
Dr. Waltke has been the author of more than a thousand articles and several books. Among his most well known works are Knowing the Will of God, An Old Testament Theology, which garnered an ECPA Christian Book Award in 2008, and Genesis, a book he coauthored with C. J. Fredricks. It won the Gold Medallion Award in 2002. The work The Way of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Bruce K. Waltke, published by Zondervan in 2000 and edited by J. I. Packer and Sven K. Soderlund, honors his countless contributions to Christian scholarship.”1
In his work The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 1-15 (New International Commentary on the Old Testament), Dr. Waltke writes:
“The word her breasts (daddeyhā) originated in infants babble; its cognate in Arabic is “nipples” (cf. titthos autēs by Aquila); it is associated with erotica in its only other uses (Ezekiel 23:3, 8, 21).121 The source of the richest and most satisfying drink is the wife’s erogenous members, represented by the breasts. Drench you (yerawwukā), continuing the drinking imagery, means in the Qal “to drink one’s fill” and in the Piel “to make saturated with a liquid.” The implied satisfying liquid is the wife’s caresses, according to the parallel.”2
The excerpt above was taken from the Google Books preview. I don’t know what he means by “the parallel” but I get the impression that he makes the verse fit his own personal tastes. I just don’t see how he can say “The source of the richest and most satisfying drink is the wife’s erogenous members, represented by the breasts,” then follow this with “The implied satisfying liquid is the wife’s caresses.” “Breasts” somehow becomes “caresses.” It doesn’t follow semantically, anatomically or physiologically.
Remember, the first rule of biblical hermeneutics is to read literally. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, drench means:
“1 Wet thoroughly; soak.
‘I fell in the stream and was drenched’
1.1 Cover (something) liberally or thoroughly.
‘cool patios drenched in flowers’
2 Forcibly administer a drug in liquid form orally to (an animal)
‘three-times-a-year drenching for calves.’”
According to the NAS, one of the most literal Bible translations, the root word ravah appears 15 times in our Bibles and each time it occurs, it means one of the following: “drench 1, drink 1, drink its fill 1, drink our fill 1, fill 2, filled 1, made me drunk 1, satiated 1, satisfy 2, soaked 1, water its abundantly 1, watering 1, waters 1.”3
At an old church of mine, an elder once exhorted the congregation to take God’s Word as is, and avoid trying to conform it to any external beliefs. Like he asked about another often twisted Bible verse, what about the words “drench, drink, drink its fill, drink our fill, fill, filled, make me drunk, satiated, satisfy, soaked, water its abundantly, watering, or waters” suggest anything other than drinking a liquid?
For me, the silver bullet is the fact that an ANR-denying seasoned veteran of Hebrew language studies would agree that yerawwukah, the form of ravah used in Proverbs 5:19 actually means “drench” and not “satisfy” or “fill with delight” as most of our English Bibles often translate. It’s all the confirmation I need to reach my conclusion.
So married men and women of God, let some breast-drenching happen tonight.
References:
1. https://christianuniversity.org/professors/dr-bruce-k-waltke/
2. Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 1-15 – Page 321 – Google Books Result
Christ-centered ANR 