Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

For your ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all your paths.
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.
For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly.

The Holy Bible : Today’s New International Version. 2005 (Pr 5:15–23). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

COMMENT:

There are certain words that the author of Proverbs uses on a regular basis that fall on the side of wisdom, and another set of words that fall on the side of folly. So on the side of wisdom, we’ll see righteousness, knowledge, discipline, strength, health and the like; on the side of folly will be the opposite: wickedness, ignorance, weakness, sickness. For some reason, many people equate sin with fun. The author of Proverbs, in contrast, equates sin with misery. The author of Proverbs is correct. The very first commandment that God ever gave the human race was to have sex (see Genesis 1:28 ). If that’s the case, why do we imagine that his other commandments are any less fun, or any less designed for our benefit and pleasure? Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) Sin isn’t fun in the long term. It is stupid and disastrous.

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