Proverbs 5:16-23

16 Let what your springs produce be dispersed outside, streams of water flowing in the streets;

17 but let them be for you alone and not for strangers with you.

18 Let your fountain, the wife of your youth, be blessed; find joy in her

19 a lovely deer, a graceful fawn; let her breasts satisfy you at all times, always be infatuated with her love.

20 My son, why be infatuated with an unknown woman? Why embrace the body of a loose woman?

21 For ADONAI is watching a man's ways; he surveys all his paths.

22 A wicked person's own crimes will trap him, he will be held fast by the ropes of his sin.

23 He will die from lack of discipline; the magnitude of his folly will make him totter and fall.

Proverbs 5:16-23 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.