Matthew Henry on Proverbs 5:15–end
Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is in adultery and fornication, and all such lewd and filthy courses, here prescribes remedies against them.
I. Enjoy with satisfaction the comforts of lawful marriage, which was ordained for the prevention of uncleanness, and therefore ought to be made use of in time, lest it should not prove effectual for the cure of that which it might have prevented. Let none complain that God has dealt unkindly with them in forbidding them those pleasures which they have a natural desire of, for he has graciously provided for the regular gratification of them. "Thou mayest not indeed eat of every tree of the garden, but choose thee out one, which thou plea…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 5:17
only thine own--harlots' children have no known father.
John Gill on Proverbs 5:17
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. Or "they shall be thine own" (u), as the Targum; meaning not the cistern, the well, or the wife, but the fountains and rivers, or the children; by a man's cleaving to his own wife, who is a chaste and virtuous woman, he is satisfied that the children he has by her are his own, and not another's; whereas if he has to do with a common harlot, it is uncertain whose children they are, she prostituting herself to many: it may be applied to the peculiar possession and steadfast retention of the truths of the Gospel, in opposition to all divers and strange doctrines propagated by others; see Revelation 2:25.
(u) "erunt tui", Mercerus, Cocc…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 5:15-17
The commendation of true conjugal love in the form of an invitation to a participation in it, is now presented along with the warning against non-conjugal intercourse, heightened by a reference to its evil consequences.
15 Drink water from thine own cistern,
And flowing streams from thine own fountain.
16 Shall thy streams flow abroad,
The water-brooks in the streets!
17 Let them belong to thyself alone,
And not to strangers with thee.
One drinks water to quench his thirst; here drinking is a figure of the satisfaction of conjugal love, of which Paul says, Co1 7:9, κρεῖσσόν ἐστι γαμῆσαι ἢ πυροῦσθαι, and this comes into view here, in conformity with the prevailing character of the O.T.…
