Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Parallel translations
- WEB Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
- KJV Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
- NKJV Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, Streams of water in the streets?
- NASB Should your springs overflow into the street, Streams of water in the public squares?
- NLT Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Should your springs be scattered abroad in the streets? Marital love and faithfulness are not to be squandered outside the marriage.
Overview
The imagery of springs overflowing in public squares warns against dissipating one's love and sexuality outside the marriage bond. What is meant to be cherished within marriage is wasted and defiled when spread abroad. The verse reinforces the call to faithful, exclusive love (v. 17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 128:3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Ps 127:3Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
- Ps 68:26Bless God in the great congregation; bless the LORD from the fountain of Israel.
- Deut 33:28So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.
- Gen 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.”
- Judg 12:9He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.
- Isa 48:21They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 5:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.