Proverbs 5:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Drink waters out of thine own cistern— The allegory here begun is carried on through several verses. It has been differently understood; but the interpretation which seems most generally followed, is that of those who conceive that the wise man here subjoins a commendation of matrimony and the chaste preservation of the marriage-bed for the propagation of a legitimate offspring, to his dehortation from illegitimate practices and stolen waters; and Schultens observes, that no figure is more elegant, or more common among the easterns, than this. See Numbers 24:7. Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 51:1.Jeremiah 2:23. According to this sense of the allegory, the next verse must refer to children, and the meaning of the two verses is this, "Live with your wife faithfully and chastely, that you may see with pleasure a lovely and numerous family proceed from your house." Some follow here the version of the LXX. Let not thy waters overflow, or be dispersed from thy fountain; and let thy waters run, or flow in thine own streets. They observe, that from Proverbs 5:3-15. Solomon dissuades his son from following strange women; and from Proverbs 5:15-20 advises him in figurative terms to confine himself to his own wife. The Vatican, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Aquila, all read in the negative. See Houbigant's notes.