Proverbs 5:16

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 5:16-17. Let thy fountains — Rather, thy streams, as Dr. Waterland renders the word, that is, thy children, proceeding from thy wife, called thy fountain, Proverbs 5:18, and from thyself; be dispersed abroad — They shall be multiplied, and in due time appear abroad in the world, to thy comfort and honour, and for the good of others; whereas harlots are commonly barren, and men are ashamed to own the children of whoredom. Let them be only thine own — “Children that acknowledge no other father, because they spring from one whom thou enjoyest (like a fountain in thy own ground) thyself alone: she being taught, by thy confining thyself to her, never to admit any stranger to thy bed.” — Bishop Patrick.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:15-23 Lawful marriage is a means God has appointed to keep from these destructive vices. But we are not properly united, except as we attend to God's word, seeking his direction and blessing, and acting with affection. Ever remember, that though secret sins may escape the eyes of our fellow-creatures, yet a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, who not only sees, but ponders all his goings. Those who are so foolish as to choose the way of sin, are justly left of God to themselves, to go on in the way to destruction.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wedded love streams forth in blessing on all around, on children and on neighbors and ill the streets, precisely because the wife's true love is given to the husband only.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15-20. By figures, in which well, cistern, and fountain [Pr 5:15, 18] represent the wife, and rivers of waters [Pr 5:16] the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction in lawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr 5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produce or waters of a spring, literally, "what is from a spring," and corresponds with "rivers of waters."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thy fountains; thy children proceeding from thy wife, called thy fountain, Proverbs 5:18, and from thyself, as the Israelites are said to come from the fountain of Israel, Deu 33:28 Psalm 68:26. Compare Isaiah 51:1. And fountains are here put for rivers flowing from them, as it is explained in the next clause, and as it is Psalm 104:10, by a metonymy of the cause for the effect. And this title may be the more fitly given to children, because as they are rivers in respect of their parents, so when they grow up, they also become fountains to their children.

Be dispersed abroad; they shall be multiplied, and in due time appear abroad in the world to thy comfort and honour, and for the good of others; whereas whores are commonly barren, and men are ashamed to own the children of whoredom.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad,.... Or "shall abound", as the Targum; that is, streams of water from fountains; which Aben Ezra interprets of a multitude of children, namely, that are lawfully begotten: the "fountains" are the man and his wife in lawful marriage; the streams are their offspring lawfully procreated by them; which may be said to be "dispersed abroad", when being grown up they are disposed of in marriage in other families, and so become fountains to others, and public blessings;

and rivers of waters in the streets; meaning a numerous posterity as before; and such as a man is not ashamed publicly to own, whereas he is ashamed of such as are unlawfully begotten; but these are to his honour in the streets, and for public good; and particularly to those to whom they are given in marriage; see Isaiah 48:1. Jarchi interprets this of multiplying disciples, and of teaching them the law publicly, and of getting a name thereby; but it might be interpreted much better of spreading the doctrines of the Gospel, and of the public ministry and profession of that, for the good of others.

Geneva Study Bible

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. Let thy fountains] This rendering (retained in R.V. marg.) gives a good sense: purity of married life (Proverbs 5:15) will diffuse itself abroad like streams from a fountain, in a numerous family, and in wholesome influences: but only by such purity can these advantages be secured (Proverbs 5:17).

The rendering of R.V. text, Should thy springs &c. with a note of interrogation at the end of the verse, makes however the connection of thought in Proverbs 5:15-17 more clear, and is a return to the warning of the earlier verses of the chapter.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. The figurative language is still continued, and under the terms "fountains" and "rivers of waters," are to be understood children, the legitimate issue of lawful marriage. So Aben Ezra and the majority of modern commentators, Schultens, Doderlein, Holden, Muenscher, Noyes, Wardlaw, etc. The meaning appears to be, "Let thy marriage be blessed with many children, who may go forth abroad for the public good." Other interpretations have been adopted. Thus:

(1) Delitzsch takes the words fountans and "rivers of waters" as used figuratively for the procreative power, and renders, "Shall thy streams flow abroad, and water brooks in the streets?" and interprets, "Let generative power act freely and unrestrainedly within the marriage relation."

(2) Schultens and Dathe, followed by Holden, regard the verse as expressing a conclusion on the preceding, "Then shall thy springs be dispersed abroad, even rivers of waters in the streets." The objection to this is that it necessitates the insertion of the copulative vau (ו) before the verb, yaphutzu, "be dispersed."

(3) Zockler and Hitzig read the verse interrogatively, "Shall thy streams flow abroad as water brooks in the streets?" on the analogy of Proverbs 6:30 and Psalm 56:7.

(4) The reading of the LXX., adopted by Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, places a negative before the verb, Μὴ ὑπερεκχείσθω, i.e. "Let not thy waters flow beyond thy fountain;" i.e. "confine thyself to thy wife." Fountains. The Hebrew ma'yanim, plural of mayan, derived from ayin ("a fountain") with the formative men, is rather a stream or rill - water flowing on the surface of the ground. It is used, however, of a fountain itself in Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2. Rivers of waters (Hebrew, pal'gey-mayim); rather, water courses, or water brooks (cf. Job 38:25). The peleg represents the various streams into which the mayan, "fountain," divides itself at its source or in its course. We find the same expression, pal'gey-mayim, used of tears in Psalm 119:136; Lamentations 3:48. It occurs again in our book in Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of waters (pal'gey mayim)." On "abroad" (Hebrew, khutz), and "in the streets" (r'khovoth), see Proverbs 1:20. Proverbs 5:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Here we meet with two other synonyms standing in a similar relation of progression. As עין denotes the fountain as to its point of outflow, so מעין (n. loci) means water flowing above on the surface, which in its course increases and divides itself into several courses; such a brook is called, with reference to the water dividing itself from the point of outflow, or to the way in which it divides, פּלג (from פּלג, Job 38:25), Arab. falaj (as also the Ethiop.) or falj, which is explained by nahar ṣaghayr (Fl.).

(Note: The latter idea (vid., under Psalm 1:3) lies nearer, after Job 38:25 : the brook as dividing channels for itself, or as divided into such; falj (falaj) signifies, according to the representation Isaiah 58:8, also like fajr, the morning-light (as breaking forth from a cleft).)

We cannot in this double figure think of any reference to the generative power in the sperma; similar figures are the waters of Judah, Isaiah 48:1, and the waters of Israel flowing forth as if from a bucket, Numbers 24:7, where זרעו is the parallel word to מים, cf. also the proper name מואב (from מו equals מוי from מוה, diffluere), aqua h.e. semen patris, and שׁגל, Deuteronomy 28:30, equals Arab. sajal (whence sajl equals דּלי, situla), which is set aside by the Kerı̂. Many interpreters have by חוּצה and בּרחבות been here led into the error of pressing into the text the exhortation not to waste the creative power in sinful lust. The lxx translates יפצוּ by ὑπερεκχείσθω; but Origen, and also Clemens Alexandrinus, used the phrase μὴ ὑπερεκχείσθω, which is found in the Complut., Ald., and several codd., and is regarded by Lagarde, as also Cappellus, as original: the three Gttingen theologians (Ewald, Bertheau, and Elster) accordingly make the emendation אל־יפצוּ. But that μή of the lxx was not added till a later period; the original expression, which the Syro-Hexapl. authorizes, was ὑπερεκχείσθω without μή, as also in the version of Aquila, διασκορπιζέσθωσαν without μή (vid., Field). The Hebrew text also does not need אל. Clericus, and recently Hitzig, Zckler, Kamphausen, avoid this remedy, for they understand this verse interrogatively - an expedient which is for the most part and also here unavailing; for why should not the author have written אם יפצו? Schultens rightly remarks: nec negationi nec interrogationi ullus hic locus, for (with Fleischer and von Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, ii. 2, 402) he regards Proverbs 5:16 as a conclusion: tunc exundabunt; so that he strengthens the summons of Proverbs 5:15 by the promise of numerous descendants from unviolated marriage. But to be so understood, the author ought to have written ויפצו. So, according to the text, יפצו as jussive continues the imper. שׁתה (15a), and the full meaning according to the connection is this: that within the marriage relation the generative power shall act freely and unrestrained. חוּץ and רחבות denote (Proverbs 1:20) the space free from houses, and the ways and places which lead towards and stretch between them; חוּץ (from חוּץ, Arab. khass, to split, seorsim ponere) is a very relative conception, according as one thinks of that which is without as the contrast of the house, the city, or the country. Here חוץ is the contrast of the person, and thus that which is anywhere without it, whereto the exercise of its manly power shall extend. The two figurative expressions are the description of the libero flumine, and the contrast, that restriction of self which the marriage relation, according to 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, condemns.