Proverbs 5:17

Study note

Setting — The speaker addresses a young man in a wisdom discourse, placing this command between a rhetorical question about public sexual exposure and a blessing for marital joy.

The words — The Hebrew phrase לְבַדֶּךָ (le.vaddekha) literally means "to/alone/you," while לְזָרִים (le.zarim) translates to "to strangers."

The thread — This restriction on sexual exclusivity runs directly through the immediate context, linking the warning against public exposure in Proverbs 5:16 to the call to rejoice in one's spouse in Proverbs 5:18.

Why it lands — The text commands the reader to restrict sexual intimacy to a single relationship and to actively exclude outsiders from that union.

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.