Proverbs 5: 15-19
King James Version – Proverbs 5: 15-19
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
The above is the KJV of this important and erotic scripture. Yes, some scripture can be erotic. Below is the NIV and NLT translations of the scripture:
New International Version –
Proverbs 5:15-19
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 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.
New Living Translation – Proverbs 5: 15-19
15 Drink water from your own well—
share your love only with your wife.[b]
16 Why spill the water of your springs in the streets,
having sex with just anyone?[c]
17 You should reserve it for yourselves.
Never share it with strangers.
18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 She is a loving deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts satisfy you always.
May you always be captivated by her love.
I want to share that I only recently started to read other translations of the Bible. I have always read only the KJV. But today the NIV translation clarified verse 16 for me. It worded the verse as a question and that made more sense. The NLT was even more clarifying as far as scriptural meaning of the proverb, but it was less poetic overall. I am growing to appreciate that other Bible translations can be beneficial to read.
After scriptural verses about forgiveness like Ephesians 1:7… John 8 1-11… and scriptures about love like John 3:16… this part of Proverbs is one of my favorite set of verses in the Holy Bible. But I should also mention that in this later stage of my life I also gain hope from 1 Corinthians 2:9. But I digress.
Back on topic, the topic being Proverbs 5… The first part and last part of this scripture is warnings against extramarital sex. Those type of warnings are fairly common in scripture. But the middle part of this proverb tells us of the joy of our marital sexual relationship! It says, “rejoice in/with the wife of your youth.” Therefore the wife certainly should rejoice in the husband of her youth as well.
Since this proverb is written as advice from a father to a son it has the male perspective such as, “May her breasts satisfy you always.” I was thinking that if the advice was written as mother to daughter it might be worded like this:
“May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice with the husband of your youth. May you be the loving doe to his powerful buck. May his erection satisfy you always.”
The funny thing is, My Melody is as obsessed with my man-nipples as I am obsessed with her boobies & nipples. So her version might be, “Let his nipples satisfy you always.”
By the way, I tease my wife when I’m admiring or loving on her breasts. I tell her, “Im just obeying Proverbs 5. Your breasts truly do satisfy me always!”
The warnings in the proverb certainly are important. Satan’s ideas about swinging and extramarital affairs are clearly condemned. Plus the chapter promotes the joys of not just monogamy but hot monogamy!
So what are your thoughts on Proverbs 5?
1- Do you like the chapter?
2- Do you think the warnings about extramarital sexual behavior apply to our day?
3- Do you find verses 15-19 inspiring?
4- How do YOU think it would be worded if it were written as mother to daughter?
Also, I’d be interested to see a more detailed and expert post and survey on this scripture posted by HR someday.
Hi LM,
This is a very interesting and relevant passage of scripture. I think it highlights, corresponds, and agrees with all other scripture talking about the marriage bed. Our sexual needs should be met by our spouse.
Extramarital sex is available to anyone who is looking for it, but the damage it causes is catastrophic. That’s why I Corinthians 7:5 is so important. Every spouse should always be sexually available to meet the needs and desires of the other.
Take away that availability, and the temptation increases exponentially.
God designed us to be sexual creatures, but He set the boundary for that in marriage.
Your question was for mothers to daughters: I don’t know how to answer that specifically, but I think we all need to do a better job of promoting God’s design for sex.
Amen to your entire comment!
Ove the picture, looks youthful!
And yes, Proverbs 5 is awesome. I absolutely agree it applies to affairs today as to warning, afairs haven't changed much!
I do find verses 15-19 inspiring, I think it simply means enjoy each other as you grow older. Sex is refreshing for you! You don't need others, just each other.
Cool! I never thought about those verses meaning enjoying sex with your spouse as you grow older! Thanks for the insight!
And to me my Melody always looks amazingly youthful during lovemaking and for many hours afterwards!
Funny how this is the last piece of Scripture I was reading last night! I really like biblegateway.com as you can flip back and forth between different translations. Have you ever tried The Message, for instance? Coming from KJV it will be a drastic change in wording but hopefully gets across the gist of what a particular passage was meant to say in original Hebrew, etc. I have attended quite a few churches where the teaching was given by Greek and Hebrew scholars, so there were many deep dives into just what particular words were supposed to mean. It has helped give me a conviction that while it's great to accept the Bible as God's Word, there are problems in treating a translation of the Bible as literal truth, and I wonder how much current (and past) Christian understanding of the Bible is based on that…
Anyway the well as metaphor is a very feminine imagery, intensely vaginal. Waters of life! My upcoming story even mentions wives blessing their husbands from the Well of their Passion, not that I was trying to be overtly sexual there, but probably was inspired by Proverbs 5. It's funny that I read Ariel & Chana Bloch's translation of THE SONG OF SONGS not too long afterward and they're commenting on the connection there as well (evidently a lot of similar Hebrew words; you could also explore something like Ezekiel 16). Certainly something like Song of Songs 4:15 would be something like a direct correlation if I remember correctly…and they both mention deer in association with breasts as well.
And yes, my nipples are quite sensitive! I think they've be more so if I'd bite the bullet and go to the doctor for a sleep study because it's been erratic at best and I really need to get that looked at. But there were times a few years ago when I could become aroused just by playing with my nipples. Even now if I feel a stirring in my prostate I can help grow that feeling by starting to caress my nipples so there's been definite rewiring going on there.
F-M thank you for that information on different translations. I’ll look into The Message.
Also, I’m probably clueless but I never thought of a well as a female analogy. Thanks!
After reading Ariel & Chana Bloch my mind is a bit hardwired to read sexual imagery all over the Bible and that makes God's desire for me (us) feel all that much more intense and primal. I didn't really appreciate it when HR was doing her (his?) verse-by-verse devotionals of the Song of Songs but I suppose that initially lit the spark.
But compare Song 4:15 (and especially if you were to continue through 5:1)
"You are a garden fountain,
a well of flowing water
streaming down from Lebanon."
with Proverbs 5:15 (etc)
"Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well."
It can certainly be read as an allusion to Cunnilingus! Delicious… But anyway here's Proverbs 5:15-19 from The Message in case anyone doesn't want to look it up:
Never Take Love for Granted
15-16
Do you know the saying, “Drink from your own rain barrel,
draw water from your own spring-fed well”?
It’s true. Otherwise, you may one day come home
and find your barrel empty and your well polluted.
17-19
Your spring water is for you and you only,
not to be passed around among strangers.
Bless your fresh-flowing fountain!
Enjoy the wife you married as a young man!
Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose—
don’t ever quit taking delight in her body.
Never take her love for granted!
FM – Thanks for mentioning the Song of Songs translation by Ariel & Chana Bloch. I think I mentioned it in a reply to one of the earlier posts about the S of S's. It is by far and away the best translation I have read. If you want some insight into the figures of speech from that day, go to godsrules.net . He has a great post about what they mean in today's vernacular. ie: apricot tree = erect penis – she has tasted it's fruit on many occasions.
You are spot on about many of the translations of the Bible being skewed by the translators interpretations of various words and phrases from Hebrew or Greek into English. My daughter took 3 years of Hebrew in college and how difficult it is to accurately translate the Bible into a language people will understand and still be accurate. Her suggestion is to read several different translations and come to your own understanding, much as LM did with this post
Another problem with many translations could be the translators lack of comfort with the subject of sex itself. I honestly think that organized "religion" has done more harm than good when it comes to marriage and the role of sexual relations within a marriage. My wife and I have had many discussions about this and had to relearn what God actually intended the physical relationship between the husband and wife to be. Example: if he hadn't intended for women to truly enjoy sex for fun, why did he give them a clitoris since it has nothing do with procreation. It is purely for her pleasure and enjoyment. Interesting that you never hear that in "religious" circles.
Another example is in Ephesians. If you look at the chapter about marital relations, most translations start the paragraph about submission with the sentence: Wife's submit yourselves to your husband…. But if you look at the last sentence of paragraph before that it says: husbands and wife's, submit yourselves to each other….. Now, since the original manuscript didn't have paragraphs, who do you suppose choose to start the paragraph with what is really the second sentence of that paragraph. This just one of many examples of how organized religion has attempted to distort God's word to fit their agenda.
I applaud you for doing the deep dives you have apparently been doing to understand to true intent of God as it pertains to marriage and life in general. I only wish I had done the same thing when I was younger but unfortunately we didn't have the ability to research then, like we do now. For all its faults, the Internet does have its good points as well. Keep up the good work and you will be rewarded, of that I'm certain.
Great perspective. I know I first came across references to the Bloch translation in the replies to one story or another here on this site, so it might have been yours for all I know! The more I know of Hebrew the more I want to know, so I might have to start studying it myself. Kabbalah interests me as well.
I'm at godrules.net and listening to his video on circumcision (I've heard similar arguments but never with there being different types of circumcision). The site seems a bit kooky but it does make you wonder… I'm still looking for the figures of speech article but haven't found it so far. I would like to see his references and sources though.
Wow, what a great study! This is one of the passages that helped rewire my thinking on sex and marriage. God meant the love between husband and wife to be hot and fulfilling. And I concur with Horndog53's comment. The church has harmed our view of Biblical sexuality. The Ephesians verse about wives submitting is always stressed, but not the one about both spouses submitting. Hmm!
It is amazing how the church avoids the fact that sex is in the Bible. We act like little school girls that giggle, blush, & run away. I have never heard this verse read aloud in any church service. This is one of the most sex positive, marriage positive, passages, & we avoid it. Leaving us all to come to our own conclusions, based on what? Well, we know all of christianity is a scholar of opinions, but very illiterate when it comes to God's Word.
The passage seems to go on to verse 23. The first half being very positively pro marriage & pro sex. Yet, it is instruction for husbands not to stray.
Commentaries go either way on verse 16. It can be a question of why would you be adulterous with your wife, but also can be a declaration of blessing that the abundant waters increase & be vast in satisfaction for you. Either way fits the overall biblical narrative. But, I lean toward the latter speaking to the how correct behavior can be blessed & rewarded vastly.
But, the whole of it is a stark contrast where marital love & sex are lavish, & luxurious, while those sexual advances being given to the forbidden woman is a lack of discipline that ends in death, & going astray.
"Proverbs 5:15-23 (ESV) 15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. 16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? 17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? 21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. 22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. 23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray."
If you notice, this whole passage has the flow & structure that even a one verse proverb has. I see this passage, contextually, to the man/husband only. With instruction, covertly, to the wife. Bible time women seem to be very pro sex. In marriage & outside of it at times. I understand this passage to say your wife is more than willing to let you be with her. She presents her breasts & body to you. Enjoy her lavishly, allow her to enjoy you lavishly. Why go elsewhere? Keep yourself from going elsewhere. Giving yourself to a forbidden woman will end badly.
Literal Standard Version
15Drink waters out of your own cistern, "" Even flowing ones out of your own well.
16Let your fountains be scattered abroad, "" In broad places streams of waters.
17Let them be to you for yourself, "" And not to strangers with you.
18Let your fountain be blessed, "" And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
19A doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, "" Magnify yourself in her love continually.
20And why do you magnify yourself, "" My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, "" And He is pondering all his paths.
22His own iniquities capture the wicked, "" And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
23He dies without instruction, "" And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!"
If anything, I see this as proof that we reap what we sow. Sin is there to mess up even the best of intentions. Right now, sinner & saint are circling the drain & we are all learning an anti-biblical response as normal. God is trying to warn us all. It's hard to take this passage & point it out to a wife & say you are supposed to do this, when we all are taught to be skeptical, as a way of life. Who listens to authority today?
Y’all intrigued me so I just ordered a copy of the Bloch book.
Good boy! 😉 Looking on the commentaries (it goes line by line and sometimes word by word) with all the cross-references to other Bible verses is really eye-opening. The Bible is far steamier and sexual than I ever thought but specifically with the Song of Songs! Having a more detailed how-to manual is wonderful enough, but also with the perspective of it being a spiritual analogy, how much it alters perceptions. What does it mean for God to be the Lover of my Soul with the full intensity and passion of the original Hebrew? And with the bowdlerization of what you find in your regular Bible, how much would that love be diluted and robbed of its power?
And LLL if you read this, the Blochs make a point of mentioning in the line "My sister, my bride," in the context of the time, that line means that he sees the Shulamite as his equal.
FM – godrules.net then look at articles. Then look for "The Erotic nature of the Song of Solomon". Then scroll down the article till you see "Allusions and symbols in the S of S. He does a great job of explaining what they meant in that day and time. For example, in the song he compares her to a mare: "like my mare" – at that time in the Orient the horse was not a beast of burden, but the cherished companion of kings. However, in today's vernacular, if I compared my wife to a mare I'd probably be sleeping in the barn with the horse that night. So it is with a lot of symbolism of that day. Unfortunately, this why it is so hard for us to truly comprehend what God's true intentions are. It also one of the major things that Satan uses to lead us down the wrong path. Thanks for the reply and I'm glad to know that it helped you and others.
LM – you won't be sorry you ordered a copy. They do a great and very in depth study and translation. It can be almost to much at times but well worth the effort. The other question it raised is, if most of the Song of Songs translations are so far from the original manuscript, what other places in the Bible are so far off the mark. One that I have a real problem with has to do with spousal abuse. Our God is true love, no malice or hate at all. Then, why on earth would he have people stay in an abusive relationship until death do us part? Seems very illogical to me. In fact, my wife and I were both in bad marriages before we met. I had a dream about our meeting about a month before it happened. We both going through a divorce at the same time. Hers from an alcoholic husband and me from a lying, cheating wife. I had been praying about the divorce and how I was taught that divorce was a no no know what. About a month after we met we had our first date. The next morning I was headed out of town on business. Suddenly there was a voice in cab as clear as in person that said: "all marriages are honored by God not all are brought together by him. (Free moral choice) please look at this in the context of your previous marriage and your current relationship". WOW! I had to pull over for a few minutes to regain my composure. Mary and I were married less than a year later and we just celebrated 27 years of true happiness. My situation fit the adultery model, however, most people would have told Mary to tough it out. However, I have come to the understanding that the true meaning of "adultery" is anything that you put ahead of your spouse. In her case, her first husband when given the choice, chose alcohol over her and their son. That guy was idiot in my opinion but his loss was my gain.
LLL – marriage with the right perspective, which you are really developing, can be the greatest thing ever. Keep up the great work and eventually some guy is going to be a very lucky man.
May all have a blessed day.
Got it! Honestly if I compared a woman to a mare I would probably be thinking she had a strong, muscular, shapely backside. I'm sure all comparisons and metaphors of this kind are meant to be flattering.
I got the Bloch book n I’ve started reading it. Thanks to all here who recommended it.
HD53, I also was in a terrible marriage. I was severely verbally abused. And yet I stuck it out because I thought that is what you are SUPPOSED to do. I now know that NO one needs to feel obligated to stay in an abusive relationship.
I will say that marrying my second and current wife, Melody, has been a wonderful contrast. We have been married in happiness for around 30 years… very much like you n your wife!
There have been tough times, especially because of our health issues. But we care for n support each other. And we have made love in many places and circumstances that would surprise people who knew of our medical problems.
Loving Man (and Horndog) I have sort of flip-flopped a bit on my opinions of translations. I have an MEV Bible which is what I'm reading and quoting most of the time and I also picked up a Strong's concordance to do more analyses of individual words. The more I look at the vagaries of translation, the more I begin to appreciate the KJV and its ilk for the greater precision of terms, but even that doesn't perhaps fully convey the meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek.
The more research I do the less I think the guy from the Godrules.com website looks like a kook…as long as you stick to his written articles and away from his videos which I find to be rambling, unprofessional, and often unfocused. He's done some solid research though (all with KJV quotations), and I don't know how possible it would be to do that kind of research with modern translations: there is too much theology and doctrine burned into the text, in the case of The Message, from a single person.