Proverbs 5:15-20

15 Drink 1water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your 2springs be scattered abroad, streams of water 3in the streets?
17 4Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your 5fountain be blessed, and 6rejoice in 7the wife of your youth,
19 a lovely 8deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts 9fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated[a] always in her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with 10a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of 11an adulteress?[b]

Proverbs 5:15-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 5

The general instruction of this chapter is to avoid whoredom, and make use of lawful marriage, and keep to that. It is introduced with an exhortation to attend to wisdom and understanding, Pr 5:1,2; one part of which lies in shunning an adulterous woman; who is described by her flattery, with which she deceives; by the end she brings men to, which is destruction and death; and by the uncertainty of her ways, which cannot be known, Pr 5:3-6. Wherefore men are advised to keep at the utmost distance from her, Pr 5:7,8; lest their honour, strength, wealth, and labours, be given to others, Pr 5:9,10; and repentance and mourning follow, when too late, Pr 5:11-14. And, as a remedy against whoredom, entering into a marriage state is advised to, and a strict regard to that; allegorically expressed by a man's drinking water out of his fountain, and by his wife being as a loving hind and pleasant roe to him, the single object of his affections, Pr 5:15-19. As also the consideration of the divine omniscience is proposed, to deter him from the sin of adultery, Pr 5:20,21; as well as the inevitable ruin wicked men are brought into by it, Pr 5:22,23.

Cross References 11

  • 1. ver. 18; [Proverbs 9:17; Song of Songs 4:12, 15; Jeremiah 2:13]
  • 2. See Psalms 68:26
  • 3. [Jeremiah 9:21; Zechariah 8:5]
  • 4. [Proverbs 14:10]
  • 5. [See ver. 15 above]
  • 6. Deuteronomy 24:5
  • 7. Malachi 2:14
  • 8. Song of Songs 2:9, 17; Song of Songs 8:14
  • 9. [Jeremiah 31:14]
  • 10. See Proverbs 2:16
  • 11. See Proverbs 2:16

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Hebrew be led astray; also verse 20
  • [b]. Hebrew a foreign woman
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.