Bible Strands
Proverbs 5:16
Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The father addresses his son in a wisdom instruction warning against adultery. He poses a rhetorical question contrasting private marital intimacy with the public exposure of illicit relationships.
The words — The Hebrew יָפ֣וּצוּ (ya.Fu.tzu) means "will they overflow," paired with מַעְיְנֹתֶי/ךָ (ma'.ye.no.Tei./kha), literally "your springs." These terms picture private intimacy being publicly displayed.
The thread — This metaphor of marital fruitfulness appears in Psalms 128:3 and Genesis 24:60, where a wife and offspring are depicted as a flourishing vine and numerous descendants. The same imagery frames sexual fidelity in Proverbs 5:15 and 17.
Why it lands — The text demands that sexual intimacy remain confined to marriage rather than being broadcast publicly. It requires the reader to guard private desires from public exposure.
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
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Cross-references
- Psalms 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Psalms 127:3 Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
- Genesis 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
- Deuteronomy 33:28 So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.
- Judges 12:9 He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.
- Psalms 68:26 Bless God in the great congregation; bless the LORD from the fountain of Israel.
- Isaiah 48:21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.