A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
Parallel translations
- WEB A loving doe and a graceful deer — let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love.
- NASB Like a loving doe and a graceful mountain goat, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love.
- NLT She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Let your wife's love satisfy you always and ever captivate you. Find delight and contentment in your own spouse.
Overview
Using tender imagery of a graceful doe, the father urges the husband to be satisfied and intoxicated with his wife's love at all times. This wholehearted delight in one's spouse is God's appointed safeguard against straying. It affirms the goodness of marital affection within the bounds of covenant faithfulness (Song of Songs; Heb 13:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Song 7:3Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
- Song 2:9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
- Song 4:5Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
- Song 8:14Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.
- Song 2:17Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.
- Prov 5:15Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
- 2 Sam 12:4Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 5:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.