Proverbs 5:19 [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.
Ver. 19. Let her be as the loving hind, &c.] The hind and the roe are the females of the hart and roebuck, of which creatures it is noted that of all other beasts they are most enamoured, a as I may so speak, with their mates, and even mate again in their heat, and desire after them. This being taken in a good sense, may set forth the ardent affections that husbands should bear to the wives of their bosoms; so they are called, too, because they should be as dear to them as the hearts in their bosoms. A wife is the most proper object of love, Col 3:18 above parent, friend, child, or any other, though never so dear to us.
And be thou ravished always.] Heb., Err thou always in her love: velut extra te sis et rerum aliarum obliviscare. b It implies, saith one, a lawful earnest affection, so as, first, to oversee some blemishes and defects. Love is blind. In facie naevus causa decoris erit. c Secondly, so highly to esteem her, and so lovingly to comport with her, that others may think him even to dote on her. Howbeit mulierosity must be carefully avoided, as a harmful error, and that saying of Jerome duly pondered and believed, Quisquis in uxorem ardentior est amator, adulter est. As a man may be drunk with his own drink, and a glutton by excessive devouring of his own meat, so likewise one may be unclean by the intemperate or intempestive abuse of the marriage bed, which ought by no means to be stained or dishonoured with sensual excesses.
a Inter utrumque ardor amoris summus, ut Oppianus de cervis agens scribit.
b Mercer.
c Ovid.