milk
cha.lav denotes milk, especially in descriptions of a fertile land and in scenes of food, drink, nursing, and comparison.
The term chiefly occurs in the repeated description of a land “flowing with milk and honey,” where it marks the land’s abundance. Other verses place it among food and drink, in maternal or nursing expressions, and in comparisons involving whiteness, curdling, or bodily fullness.
Senses in use
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Milk in the land’s abundance formula · dominant
In the absolute singular, the term stands in the recurring clause describing a land “flowing with milk and honey.” In Exodus 3:8 the APB renders the destination as “a good and spacious land” and then as a land “flowing with milk and honey”; Numbers 13:27 likewise pairs the clause with the land’s fruit.
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Milk as food or drink · common
The term names a consumable provided, prepared, or drunk in household and meal settings. In Genesis 18:8 the APB renders curds and milk set before guests; Judges 4:19 renders a skin of milk given to a thirsty man; Proverbs 27:27 speaks of goats’ milk feeding a household.
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Milk in maternal and nursing relations · occasional
Construct forms mark milk in relation to a mother or to those who provide it. In Exodus 23:19 the APB renders the prohibition against boiling a kid in “its mother’s milk”; Isaiah 60:16 renders nursing imagery as “the milk of nations” and nursing at the breast of kings.
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Milk in physical comparisons and processes · occasional
The term supplies imagery for appearance, bodily condition, and transformation. In Genesis 49:12 the APB renders teeth “whiter than milk”; Job 10:10 compares being poured out and curdled to milk and cheese; Proverbs 30:33 says that pressing milk produces curds.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB usually presents the term as “milk,” including the recurring wording “flowing with milk and honey.” It also uses “mother’s milk,” “goats’ milk,” and “milk of nations” in relational clauses.