Give me, I pray thee, a little water. — The request was natural enough; but, as he had not made it at first, we may suspect that he wanted to taste food in the tent, as a way of rendering still more secure the inviolable laws of Eastern hospitality. Saladin refuses to let Reginald of Chatillon drink in his tent, because he means to kill him.
A bottle of milk. — Rather, the skin of milk. The word “bottle” means, of course, a leathern bottle or skin. Josephus says that the milk was “already corrupted,” i.e., that it was butter-milk (Antt v. 6, § 5). This is quite probable, because butter-milk (lebban) is a common drink in Arab tents. When R. Tanchum adds that butter-milk inebriates, and Rashi that it produces deep sleep, and that it was her object to stupefy him, they are simply giving reins to their imagination. Josephus says, “He drank so immoderately that he fell asleep.” It might have been supposed that she would naturally offer him wine; but it is far from certain that even “must” or “unfermented wine” — much less fermented wine, which requires considerable art to make — would have been found in those poor tents; and, further, these Kenites may have been abstainers from wine, as their descendants the Rechabites were. (Jeremiah 35:2.)