A metonomy used in the Holy Scripture to denote excellent articles of food. The phrase, a land flowing with milk and honey, occurs about 20 times, and honey is mentioned about 58 times. Whether the Hebrews bestowed care upon agriculture, is uncertain, but the abundance of wild honey is proven by many texts. Yahveh is said to feed his elect with honey out of the rock (Psalm 80); Samson found a honey-comb in the mouth of a dead lion (Judges 14); the people of Israel found the wild honey in a stream upon the earth (1 Kings 14). Milk, especially the milk of goats, formed a large part of the food of Israel; wherefore, although the phrase “flowing with milk and honey” is a hyperbole and metonomy to denote richness of food products, the metonomy has a basis in the actual presence of these two articles of food in ancient Palestine.
- “milk and honey”. . CatholicSaints.Info. 6 February 2013. Web. 27 February 2017. <>