15 Drink water from your own cistern,

water flowing from your own well.  * 5:15 Sg 4:12,15

16 Should your springs flow in the streets,

streams in the public squares?  * 5:16 Pr 7:12

17 They should be for you alone

and not for you to share with strangers.

18 Let your fountain be blessed,

and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.  * 5:18 Ec 9:9; Mal 2:14

19 A loving deer, a graceful doe  * 5:19 Or graceful mountain goat  —

let her breasts always satisfy you;  * 5:19 Sg 4:5

be lost in her love forever.

20 Why, my son, would you lose yourself

with a forbidden woman

or embrace a wayward woman?  * 5:20 Pr 2:16