Bible Strands
Proverbs 5:15
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses a young man who has just confessed his public ruin in Proverbs 5:14, issuing a direct command before the warning in Proverbs 5:16.
The words — The Hebrew שְׁתֵה (she.teh) means "drink" and מִבּוֹרֶךָ (mi.bo.re.kha) translates literally to "from your cistern," grounding the instruction in a tangible image of private resource consumption.
The thread — The cistern and well metaphor reappears in Proverbs 5:18 as a blessing for marital joy, while the prohibition against public sexual release aligns with 1 Corinthians 7:2 and Hebrews 13:4.
Why it lands — The text commands exclusive sexual satisfaction within one's own marriage, rejecting the extramarital gratification described in Proverbs 5:16.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 7:2 But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
- Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Proverbs 5:18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: