Proverbs 5:15

This metaphor contained here, and Proverbs 5:16, is to be understood either,

1. Of the free and lawful use of a man's estate, both for his own comfort, and for the good of others. Or rather,

2. Of the honest use of matrimony, as the proper remedy against these filthy practices. This best suits with the whole context, both foregoing and following; and thus it is explained in the end of Proverbs 5:18. So the sense is, Content thyself with those delights which God alloweth thee, with the sober use of the marriage bed. Why shouldst thou ramble hither and thither, trespassing against God and men, to steal their waters, which thou mightest freely take out of thine own cistern or well. The ground of the metaphor is this, that waters were scarce and precious in those countries, and therefore men used to make cisterns and wells for their own private use. And the same metaphor of waters, and of a pit, or well, is applied to things of this nature elsewhere, as Proverbs 23:27 Isaiah 48:1, Isaiah 51:1.