Saturday, September 5, 2026 · Chapter 5
Stay At Your Own Well
Solomon isn’t telling you to feel guilty. He’s telling you where to point your thirst. A man who is drinking deep at home doesn’t go looking for water somewhere else.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Proverbs 5:15
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Proverbs 5:16
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
Proverbs 5:17
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Proverbs 5:18
IThe Hebrew, opened up
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fountain, spring — literally “something dug,” a source of water
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strangers — from a root meaning “to turn aside,” to be a foreigner, someone outside your household
Maqor is your dug well, the one source you built and maintain. The word gets used elsewhere for tears, blood, even a woman’s body — it’s the deepest kind of source. Solomon isn’t picking a random image. He’s saying your wife is the well you dug your life around, and it’s supposed to stay yours, blessed, not neglected and not shared. A zar isn’t just someone you don’t know — it’s someone who has “turned aside” from where they belong. The word paints temptation as a detour, not an accident. Nobody stumbles into another man’s water supply. You turn off the road to get there. Solomon’s whole point is: don’t turn off the road.
IIWhat this actually means
Verses 15-16 aren’t about being stingy with your marriage — they’re about not leaking your attention, your time, and your body somewhere it doesn’t belong. Verse 17 says plainly: keep it yours, keep it home. Verse 18 flips from warning to blessing — rejoice with the wife of your youth, on purpose, today, not as a leftover after everything else gets your energy. A well that nobody draws from goes stale. A marriage that gets no attention starts to feel like the thing you outgrew, and that feeling is exactly what temptation uses to sell you something worse.
IIIObey it today
If you catch yourself scrolling something today that isn’t your wife — a flirty text, a page you’d hide the screen for — close it the second you notice, no negotiating with yourself for “just one more.”
Before noon, text or tell your wife one specific thing, not a generic “love you” — name a real thing she did or is that you’re grateful for.
If a conversation at work or online starts drifting flirty or too personal with someone who isn’t your wife, cut it short on purpose — change the subject or walk away, don’t just “let it play out.”
PrayerGod, keep my eyes and my attention at home today, and help me actually rejoice in what You already gave me instead of chasing something I’d have to hide.
Keep this in your chest
“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.”
Proverbs 5:15