Proverbs 5:18

18 May your fountain be blessed, and rejoice 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 Shall your springs be scattered outward? In the streets, [shall there be] streams of water?

17 May they be yours alone, and not for strangers [who are] with you.

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

19 [She is] a deer of love and a doe of grace; may her breasts satisfy you {always}; by her love may you be intoxicated continually.

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Footnotes

• [a] Or "woman"