Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. As all desire resembles thirst, to drink water means to gratify desire, and the woman is compared to a well. Embrace thine own wife, and enjoy her love alone. Enjoy only lawful pleasures. So the hcavenly spouse is called "a foundation sealed" (Song of Solomon 4:12; contrast Proverbs 23:27, "A whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit"). To allay thirst at poisonous and filthy waters would be suicidal folly. In Easters countries the two sources of supply of water are wells of living water and cisterns of rain water, covered over. The appropriateness of the image appears from the fact, that each house had its own cistern (2 Kings 18:31; cf. the same image. Proverbs 9:17; Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 51:1). As heretofore he had warned the youth against the strange woman, so now he exhorts to faithfulness to the lawful wife.