Proverbs 5:18

18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Proverbs 5:18 in Other Translations

KJV
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
ESV
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
NLT
18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
MSG
18 Bless your fresh-flowing fountain! Enjoy the wife you married as a young man!
CSB
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.

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 overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
20 Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

Cross References 2

  • 1. Song of Songs 4:12-15
  • 2. S Deuteronomy 20:7; Proverbs 2:17; Ecclesiastes 9:9; Malachi 2:14
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