Drink Water From Your Own Cistern
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge. 3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol. 6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it. 7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house, 9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; 10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house. 11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed, 12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof. 13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me! 14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.” 15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. 16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? 17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. 18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. 19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love. 20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another? 21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths. 22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. 23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
The warning runs on a contrast between what is sweet at the start and what is bitter at the end, and its remedy is not restraint but delight.
The chapter opens on the mouth. Her lips drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. What the honey turns into is stated in the next breath: bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. The whole warning turns on that gap. Nothing is said about the offer being unattractive. It is described as genuinely sweet, and then followed forward to where it ends.
The consequences listed are worldly and specific. Years given to the cruel. Wealth going into a stranger's house. Strength spent, and the body consumed. The man's regret is quoted in advance, and the sentence he says is the one that matters: How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! He does not say he was unlucky. He identifies the exact moment the road forked, and it was a moment of correction he refused.
The remedy is the surprise of the chapter. A book of this period could have counseled discipline or avoidance. What it counsels is enjoyment. Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. In a dry country a private cistern is a serious asset, and the image is of a man drinking from something that is genuinely his. Then it becomes explicit: Rejoice in the wife of your youth... let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
That is not a grudging concession. The verb translated captivated is the same one used two verses later of the adulteress, so the passage takes the strongest word available for intoxication with a woman and applies it to a marriage. The book's argument against adultery is not that desire is dangerous. It is that desire has a proper object which is better, and that the man is being asked to trade something rich for something that ends in wormwood.
The closing image is a rope. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. Nobody ties him up. The cords are described as his own conduct, wrapped around him by repetition until they hold. And the last verse names the cause of death with the same word that ran through the regret: He will die for lack of instruction.
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