butter

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:

Number:
2529 (find all occurrences in KJV Bible)
Transliteration:
chem’ah
Phonic:
khem-aw’
Meaning:
or (shortened) chemah {khay-maw'}; from the same root as 2346; curdled milk or cheese
KJV Usage:
butter

“471. Butter Making” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

There is but little in the Eastern mode of preparing butter that is similar to our churning. The milk is put into a bag or bottle, made of the skin of a goat or of a buffalo, and is agitated in various ways until the butter, such as it is, comes. See note on Genesis 18:88And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. (Genesis 18:8) (#13). Sometimes the skin containing the milk is shaken to and fro, or beaten with sticks. Sometimes it is placed on the ground and trodden upon. Thus Job says, “I washed my steps with butter” (Job 29:66When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil; (Job 29:6)). Again, it is pressed or squeezed with the hands, so that the contents become agitated and gradually coagulate. This last method is probably referred to in the text. There is a beauty in the original which does not appear in our English version. The word mits is thrice repeated, but is translated by three different terms: “churning,” “wringing,” “forcing.” It literally means “pressing” or “squeezing,” just as the skin bag is pressed or squeezed for the production of butter. The nose treated in a similar manner will bleed, and wrath which is thus “ pressed “ will result in strife.

“492. Butter and Honey” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

See also verse 22. Honey is frequently mixed with various forms of milk preparations and used upon bread. The Arabs in traveling often take leathern bottles full of honey for this purpose. It is considered very palatable, especially by the children. The context shows that the reference in the text is made particularly to the days of childhood. The fourteenth verse refers to the birth of a son, and the sixteenth to his early infancy. It is of this child that it is said, “Butter and honey shall he eat.”
There may be in the mixture of these two substances a propriety founded on physiological facts. Wood, in speaking of the Musquaw, or American Black Bear, after giving an account of its method of obtaining the wild honey which is found in hollow trees, adds: “The hunters, who are equally fond of honey, find that if it is eaten in too great plenty it produces very unpleasant symptoms, which may be counteracted by mixing it with the oil which they extract from the fat of the bear” (Illustrated Natural History, vol.1, p. 397). We find in Proverbs 25:16,2716Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. (Proverbs 25:16)
27It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory. (Proverbs 25:27), allusion to the disagreeable consequences of eating too much honey, and it is possible that experience had proved the oily nature of the butter a corrective of the honey.

Related Books and Articles:

471. Butter Making
Narrator: Chris Genthree
492. Butter and Honey
Narrator: Chris Genthree