(8) יהוה freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents, (9) bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
(12) When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield—in the third year, the year of the tithe —and have given it to the [family of the] Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements, (13) you shall declare before your God יהוה: “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the [family of the] Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, just as You commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of Your commandments: (14) I have not eaten of it while in mourning, I have not cleared out any of it while I was impure, and I have not deposited any of it with the dead. I have obeyed my God יהוה; I have done just as You commanded me. (15) Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.”
(2) As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that your God יהוה is giving you, you shall set up large stones. Coat them with plaster (3) and inscribe upon them all the words of this Teaching. When you cross over to enter the land that your God יהוה is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as יהוה, the God of your ancestors, promised you— (4) upon crossing the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, about which I charge you this day, on Mount Ebal, and coat them with plaster.
"flowing with milk and honey - This is a recurrent symbol of the land's fertility. Ancient Egyptian sources testify to the richness of the land. The combination of milk and honey implies that the land supports both agriculture (honey from dates) and pasturage (milk from goats). The phrase is never included in the divine promises to the patriarchs, for whom famine was frequently a grim reality. Their faith did not need to be reinforced by stressing the attractiveness of the land. Such an enticement would carry weight for the demoralized, enslaved masses of Israelites. Milk in the Bible is generally from the goat, "the little man's cow." A plentiful supply presupposes an abundance of goats, which in turn points to ample pasturage and the prospect of plentiful meat, hide, and wool. Honey in the Bible is predominantly the thick, sweet syrup produced from dates. The combination of milk and honey provides a highly nutritious diet. Some Arab tribes are known to subsist for months at a time solely on milk products and honey.
רמי בר יחזקאל איקלע לבני ברק חזנהו להנהו עיזי דקאכלן תותי תאיני וקנטיף דובשא מתאיני וחלבא טייף מנייהו ומיערב בהדי הדדי אמר היינו זבת חלב ודבש א"ר יעקב בן דוסתאי מלוד לאונו שלשה מילין פעם אחת קדמתי בנשף והלכתי עד קרסולי בדבש של תאינים אמר ר"ל לדידי חזי לי זבת חלב ודבש של צפורי והוי שיתסר מילין אשיתסר מילין אמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזי לי זבת חלב ודבש של כל ארץ ישראל
Rami b. Ezekiel once paid a visit to Bene-berak where he saw goats grazing under fig-trees while honey was flowing from the figs, and milk ran from them, and these mingled with each other. ‘This is indeed’, he remarked, ‘[a land] flowing with milk and honey’.
R. Jacob b. Dostai related: From Lod to Ono [is a distance of about] three miles. Once I rose up early in the morning and waded [all that way] up to my ankles in honey of the figs.
Resh Lakish said: I myself saw the flow of the milk and honey of Sepphoris and it extended [over an area of] sixteen by sixteen miles.
Rabbah b. Bar Hana said: I saw the flow of the milk and honey in all the Land of Israel.
(Soncino Talmud)
We find it four times in the book of Exodus (3.8, 3.17, 13.5, and 33.3), one in Leviticus (20.24), one in Numbers (14.8), and 5 times in the book of Deuteronomy (6.3 and 11.9, 26.9, 26.15, 27.3, 31.20).
וטעם זבת חלב ודבש כי שבח תחלה את הארץ שהיא טובה, לומר שהאויר טוב ויפה לבני אדם וכל טוב ימצא בה, ושהיא רחבה, שיעמדו בה כל ישראל במרחב או טעם רחבה שיש בה רחבות, שפלה ועמק ומישור גדולים וקטנים ואין רובה הרים וגאיות וחזר ושבח אותה שהיא ארץ מקנה שיש בה מרעה טוב, והמים יפים, ויגדל החלב בבהמות, כי אין הבהמות בריאות וטובות ומרבות החלב רק באויר טוב ועשב רב ומים טובים. ובעבור שימצא זה באחו ובמרום הרים אין הפירות שם שמנים ויפים מאד, אמר כי היא עוד שמינה שפירותיה שמנים ומתוקים עד שתזוב כולה בדבש מהם.
The meaning of flowing of milk and honey is that it is initially praising the land that it is good, which is to say that the air is good and lovely to people, and that all good will be found of it.
And it is wide, that all of Israel will be able to live there with space, or the meaning of wide is that there will be lots, low, deep, and huge plains and small plains, and there won't be a lot of mountains or ravines, and then it returns to praise it as a land of livestock which has good grazing and beautiful water, and one can grow milk of domestic animals, since domestic animals are only healthy and good that give off plenty of milk with good air, plentiful grass, and good water.
And on account of this being found in meadows and in the high mountains, there are no fruits there that are fat and good, but it said, that it would be further fatty that the fruits would be juicy and sweet until they ooze honey out of them.
Rav Uri Sharki suggests that while we usually do not eat products of non-kosher creatures, we do so in two cases: milk and honey: Honey from bees and milk – from humans. The unique gift of the Land then is its ability to be transformative; to take something that would be normally be considered “impure”, non-kosher, not fit for eating and turn it into something “pure”, digestible, healing, sweetening and life giving.
הַֽנֶּחֱמָדִ֗ים מִ֭זָּהָב וּמִפַּ֣ז רָ֑ב וּמְתוּקִ֥ים מִ֝דְּבַ֗שׁ
[The Torah is] more desirable than gold, than much fine gold; sweeter than honey