Proverbs 5:16
in Proverbs 5Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?
KJV
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
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This verse in Proverbs 5
Commentary
11 notes on this verse"Let your fountains be dispersed abroad," etc. Give your son and daughter in marriage to others, and do this openly with many witnesses.
This site's exposition
Drink water from your own cistern
on Proverbs 5:15-17
Against the stranger's well the father sets the son's own cistern, married love pictured as water rightly his. “Drink water from your own cistern” is the positive form of the warning before it. “Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers” returns the point to its center.
This site's exposition
Why should your springs flow in the streets
The Hebrew line has no question word, and the Berean supplies why should, so that verse 17 keeps the waters at home. Bede reads the springs flowing in the streets as sons and daughters given in marriage openly before many witnesses. Both readings keep the springs pure.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Let the fountain of your water be your own and let no stranger share with you." For all who do not love God are strangers, are antichrists. And although they enter the basilicas, they cannot be numbered among the sons of God. That fountain of life does not belong to them. Even an evil person can have baptism; even an evil person can have prophecy. We find that king Saul had prophecy; he was persecuting the holy David and was filled with the Spirit of prophecy and began to prophesy. Even an evil person can receive the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord, for about such it has been said, "He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself." Even an evil person can have the name of Christ, that is, even an evil person can be called Christian; and about these it has been said, "They profaned the name of their God." Therefore, even an evil man can have all these mysteries. But he cannot have love and be evil. This, then, is the peculiar gift; it is the unique fountain. For drinking of this the Spirit of God encourages you; for drinking of himself the Spirit of God encourages you.
The Medieval Church1 voice
"Let them be yours alone," etc. Retain in your own power alone with whom you join your children in marriage, and let neither fornicators nor prostitutes be partakers with your offspring.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
): "Look upon them as streams from thy own pure fountains" (the Jews are said to come forth out of the waters of Judah, Isa. xlviii. 1 ), "so that they are parts of thyself, as the streams are of the fountain.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
Fountains - Thy children proceeding from thy wife and from thyself. Fountains are here put for rivers flowing from them. Dispersed - They shall in due time appear abroad to thy comfort, and for the good of others.
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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."
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad - Let thy children lawfully begotten be numerous.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
May your springs spread out In the end you will acquire disciples, and you will promulgate decisions in public, and you will gain a reputation.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Drink water from your own cistern From the cistern that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave you for your share, viz. the Law of Moses.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יָפ֣וּצוּ | yafutzu | will they overflow? | H6327 → | |
| מַעְיְנֹתֶ֣יךָ | ma'yenoteikha | springs your | H4599 → | 23 times |
| ח֑וּצָה | chutzah | [the] outside towards | H2351 → | 164 times |
| בָּ֝רְחֹב֗וֹת | barechovot | in the open places | H7339 → | 43 times |
| פַּלְגֵי־ | palgei- | streams of | H6388 → | |
| מָֽיִם׃ | mayim | water | H4325 → | 581 times |
יָפ֣וּצוּwill they overflow?
yafutzuH6327 →
מַעְיְנֹתֶ֣יךָsprings your
ma'yenoteikhaH4599 →23 times
ח֑וּצָה[the] outside towards
chutzahH2351 →164 times
בָּ֝רְחֹב֗וֹתin the open places
barechovotH7339 →43 times
פַּלְגֵי־streams of
palgei-H6388 →
מָֽיִם׃water
mayimH4325 →581 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 127:3Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
it leads to
- Psalms 128:3–4
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Deuteronomy 28:4
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
- 1 Samuel 1:27
I prayed for this boy, and since the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him,
- Genesis 48:4
and told me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you; I will make you a multitude of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’
- Genesis 33:5
When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
- Psalms 128:3–4
Through
Psalms 128:3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 19:10
Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of the abundant waters.
- Psalms 52:8
But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in the loving devotion of God forever and ever.
- Ezekiel 19:10
Through
Genesis 24:60And 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.”
it leads to
- Genesis 22:17
I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- Genesis 22:17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs

This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7:6; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
