English Standard Version
Proverbs 5:15
15Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
Proverbs 5:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
- New International Version (NIV)Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Drink water from your own cistern, And running water from your own well.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Drink water from your own well— share your love only with your wife.
Context of Proverbs 5:15
13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. 14I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation." Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. 16Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? 17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
Read all of Proverbs 5Proverbs 5:15 word by word
שְׁתֵה־מַ֥יִם מִבּוֹרֶ֑ךָ וְ֝נֹזְלִ֗ים מִתּ֥וֹךְ בְּאֵרֶֽךָ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Proverbs 5:15
- Proverbs 5:18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
- 1 Corinthians 7:2But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
- Hebrews 13:4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Commentaries on Proverbs 5:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15Drink waters out of thine own cistern - Be satisfied with thy own wife; and let the wife see that she reverence her husband; and not tempt him by inattention or unkindness to seek elsewhere what he has a right to expect, but cannot find, at home.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15The teacher seeks to counteract the evils of mere sensual passion chiefly by setting forth the true blessedness of which it is the counterfeit. The true wife is as a fountain of refreshment, where the weary soul may quench its thirst. Even the joy which is of the senses appears, as in the Song of Solomon, purified and stainless (see Proverbs 5:19 marginal reference).Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 15-23Verses 15-23 Lawful marriage is a means God has appointed to keep from these destructive vices. But we are not properly united, except as we attend to God's word, seeking his direction and blessing, and acting with affection. Ever remember, that though secret sins may escape the eyes of our fellow-creatures, yet a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, who not only sees, but ponders all his goings. Those who are so foolish as to choose the way of…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 15-18To drink from one's own well (see also Song 4:12, 15) means to enjoy sexual relations within marriage. Instead of spending sexual energy on immoral women, a man should build a healthy sexual relationship with his wife. Sex should not be shared with strangers. This honors marriage (Genesis 2:22–25) and follows the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 15-2015-20. By figures, in which well, cistern, and fountain [Pr 5:15, 18] represent the wife, and rivers of waters [Pr 5:16] the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction in lawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr 5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produce or waters of a spring, literally, "what is from a spring," and corresponds with "rivers of waters."Read the comment
Topics related to Proverbs 5:15
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Proverbs 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries