Proverbs 5:15-23

Chastity Contrasted with Unchastity

v. 15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well, seeking the satisfaction of permitted desire and intercourse only and alone within the bounds of holy wedlock.

v. 16. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets, in the proper enjoyment of marital love.

v. 17. Let them be only thine own, that is, the waters of this fountain in lawful wedlock, and not strangers' with thee, in illegitimate intercourse.

v. 18. Let thy fountain be blessed, the children of lawful wedlock being gifts of the Lord, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Cf Deuteronomy 24:5; Ecclesiastes 9:9.

v. 19. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe, or the graceful gazelle, emblems of the graceful, fascinating, lively nature of a young wife; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, her bosom charming her husband, and be thou ravished always with her love, said of the ecstatic joy of the loving husband which meets with the glad approval of God within holy wedlock.

v. 20. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, with a wanton harlot, professing the same delight in her company which he might and should lawfully have with the wife given him by the Lord, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? of one in whose case such familiarity is excluded by the prohibition of the Sixth Commandment.

v. 21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings, His omniscience marking the conduct of every person and noting every unchaste desire, thought, word, and act.

v. 22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, overtake every evil-doer, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins, as fetters holding him captive and keeping him securely for the final punishment.

v. 23. He shall die without instruction, for want of correction, because he would not accept it, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray, thus bringing destruction upon himself. Such is the way of the libertine, a few years of forbidden voluptuousness followed by everlasting condemnation.