Excerpts from definitions of what seem to be key the Hebrew words are set out following the scriptural text. The sources are hyperlinked.
That is followed by excerpts from the scriptural texts that tell us what about God or His ways, what we should do, and what we should not do.
That is followed by commentary, in blue. The commentary is my own, so it is not entitled to any particular weight.
Scriptural Text:
15Drink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 As a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be exhilarated always with her love.
Definitions:
Drink = שָׁתָה= shathah
to feast; to be drunk; to imbibe (literally or figuratively); to drink together, to banquet
water(v. 15) = מַיִם= mayim
water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen
springs= מַעְיָן= ma`yan
fountain, spring, well
water (v. 16) = נָזַל= nazal
to flow, distil, flow forth or down, trickle, drop;streams, floods (participle); to cause to flow; shed by trickling; gush out, melt, pour (down), running water, stream; fluids; like other verbs of flowing; is to be construed as an acc. Of whatever flows plentifully
fountain= מָקוֹר= maqowr
spring; source of life, joy, purification (fig.); source (of menstruous blood); by euphemism, of the female pudenda
rejoice = שָׂמַח= samach
be glad; to brighten up; blithe or gleesome; cheer up; to gladden, make joyful
satisfy= רָוָה= ravah
to be satiated or saturated, have or drink one’s fill; to take one's fill; to be drunk, be intoxicated; to drench, water abundantly, saturate;to slake the thirst (occasionally of other appetites);bathe; soak, water (abundantly), irrigated
exhilarated= שָׁגָה= shagah
to swerve, meander, reel, roll, be intoxicated, err (in drunkenness); be enraptured; be ravished; elevated
What this passage tells us:
What this passage tells us to do:
Drink water from your own cistern
Let them be yours alone
rejoice in the wife of your youth.
let her breasts satisfy you at all times
be exhilarated always with her love.
What this passage tells us not to do:
not for strangers with you
Commentary:
The marriage relationship is to be exclusive between husband and wife.
More than that, the relationship should be an area of intense focus/pleasure:
· Husbands are to be saturated, drenched, intoxicated, enraptured by their wives.
We are to approach the relationship with a positive attitude, with the goal/expectation of joy
· This is the opposite of the hate and embitterment that Ephesians 5:28-29 and Colossians 3:19 warn against.
· This positive expectation/attitude towards our wives is consistent with the concept of “honor[ing]’ them, as discussed in 1 Peter 3:17.
The direction to “Drink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well,” seems to have multiple levels:
· It directs against directly adulterous sexual activity: cheating, “three ways,” “open marriage” type activity.
· It also directs against things that more subtly intervene into/influence/interfere with the relationship between husband and wife, things like pornography, coveting other women. That could be one of the reasons Jesus so strongly teaches against such things in Matthew 5:27-30.
· Perhaps it also warns about preoccupation with/prioritization of other things, even otherwise good things, that interfere with the joy that God wants marriage to provide.
Read together, Proverbs 5:18 and Deuteronomy 24:5 direct that the husband both give and receive happiness in connection with his wife.
· Deuteronomy 24:5 directs the husband to give happiness to his wife.
· Proverbs 5:18 tells the husband to derive happiness from his wife
Proverbs 5:19’s direction that a husband “be exhilarated always with her love” has a multi-level temporal aspect:
· “Always” indicates that the exhilaration should be without exception; all the time; that there should be no cheating or lusting after/coveting, comparing to other women, ever.
· “Always” could also refer to the entire course of the spouses’ mutual life times. That means that the exhilaration should be more than sexual, because sexual desire/exhilaration goes away with old age.
We should look for the best in our wives, for the things that initially drew us to them.
There should be a comfortableness, lack of stress, in marital fidelity.
These benefits/directions flow not just to the benefit of the husband and wife, they also bless the rest of the household.
· “Happy wife, happy life,” and its opposite, affects everyone in the family.
· This is true of all the husbanding verses.
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