15 Drink water from your own cistern,
And running water from your own well.
16 Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
[a]Streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be only your own,
And not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice with (A)the wife of your youth.
19 (B)As a loving deer and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And always be [b]enraptured with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by (C)an immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 5:16 Channels
  2. Proverbs 5:19 Lit. intoxicated

15 Drink water from your own cistern,
    running water from your own well.
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(A) be blessed,
    and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.(B)
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer(C)
    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?

Read full chapter