Proverbs 5:16 (BSB)

Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

From Proverbs 5. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 5:16

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 5:15-23: Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is in adultery and fornication, and all such lewd and filthy courses, here prescribes remedies against them. I. Enjoy with satisfaction the comforts of lawful marriage, which was ordained for the prevention of uncleanness, and therefore ought to be made use of in time, lest it should not prove effectual for the cure of that which it might have prevented.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 5:16: Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad,.... Or "shall abound", as the Targum; that is, streams of water from fountains; which Aben Ezra interprets of a multitude of children, namely, that are lawfully begotten: the "fountains" are the man and his wife in lawful marriage; the streams are their offspring lawfully procreated by them; which may be said to be "dispersed abroad", when being grown up...
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 5:15-17: Pro 5:15-17 The commendation of true conjugal love in the form of an invitation to a participation in it, is now presented along with the warning against non-conjugal intercourse, heightened by a reference to its evil consequences. 15 Drink water from thine own cistern, And flowing streams from thine own fountain. 16 Shall thy streams flow abroad, The water-brooks in the streets!