Proverbs 5:15-20

15 Drink water from your own well. Drink running water from your own spring.
16 Should your springs pour out into the streets? Should your streams of water pour out in public places?
17 No! Let them belong to you alone. Never share them with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed. May the wife you married when you were young make you happy.
19 She is like a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her breasts always satisfy you. May you always be captured by her love.
20 My son, why be captured by a woman who commits adultery? Why hug the wife of another man?

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.

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