Daily reading
Proverbs · V · 15–23
Proverbs 5:15–23 · NLT
XIX · X · MMXXVI
Key verses · Proverbs 5:15–23 · NLT
15rink water from your own well · share your love only with your wife. (NLT)
18Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. (NLT)
21For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes. (NLT)
Proverbs 5:15–23 · New Living Translation
15rink water from your own well · share your love only with your wife.
16Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone?
17You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers.
18Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.
20Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman?
21For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes.
22An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness. (NLT)
A note on Scripture quoting
We’ve hit this translation’s public quoting limit for now, so this is a good time to pick up your own Bible and read the rest of the passage.
In short
After two days of warnings, the father turns positive. The best guard against the wrong love is delight in the right one. He uses the picture of a well: fresh water you keep and enjoy at home, not spilled out in the street. He tells his son to rejoice in the wife of his youth and stay captivated by her. Marriage here isn’t a duty to endure. It’s a gift meant to be enjoyed for a lifetime.
Then he lifts the camera. The Lord sees every path, and sin isn’t freedom. It turns into ropes that hold a man in place. The way out, and the way to stay out, is self-control, practiced in small choices long before any big one shows up.
Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. (NLT)
Proverbs 5:18
Try today
Rejoice on purpose. Tell your spouse one specific thing you love or admire about them, out loud or in a quick text, before lunch. Then notice one small place where you’d usually give in without thinking, and practice a little self-control there.