Proverbs 5:18

18 Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.[a]

Proverbs 5:18 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 5:18

Let thy fountain be blessed
Thy wife; make her happy by keeping to her and from others; by behaving in a loving, affable, and respectful manner to her; by living comfortably with her, and providing well for her and her children: or reckon her a happiness, a blessing that God has bestowed; or

``thy fountain shall be blessed,''
as the Targum; that is, with a numerous offspring, which was always reckoned a blessedness, and was generally the happiness of virtuous women, when harlots were barren; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth;
taken to be a wife in youth, and lived with ever since; do not despise her, nor divorce her, even in old age, but delight in her company now as ever; carry it not morosely and churlishly to her, but express a joy and pleasure in her; see ( Ecclesiastes 9:9 ) ( Malachi 2:14 Malachi 2:15 ) . Jarchi interprets this of the law learned in youth; but it might be much better interpreted of the pure apostolic church of Christ, "the beulah", to whom her sons are married, ( Isaiah 62:4 Isaiah 62:5 ) ; to whom they should cleave with delight and pleasure, and not follow the antichristian harlot.

Proverbs 5:18 In-Context

16 Should your springs flow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
17 They should be for you alone and not for you [to share] with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn- let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever.
20 Why, my son, would you be infatuated with a forbidden woman or embrace the breast of a stranger?

Footnotes 1

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