Proverbs 5:18

Proverbs 5:18, in plain English

Instead, find your delight and satisfaction in the wife you married when you were young—may your marriage be a source of blessing and joy.

Why it's here

The father is calling his son to cherish his own wife, to find her—and only her—attractive and satisfying. This isn't resignation; it's celebration. The youth he married represents something precious: a covenant, a partnership, a history together.

Who's speaking

The father, now offering a blessing for his son's future

Where it sits in the story

This echoes how throughout Scripture, marriage is presented as one of God's greatest gifts. The Song of Solomon, for instance, celebrates marital love with unrestrained joy. God isn't against pleasure; He's for pleasure in the right context.

The scholarly reading

The blessing on the marriage relationship—may the wife be a source of ongoing joy and satisfaction—presents marital love as divinely approved and fruitful.

Language and setting

The word 'blessed' (בְרוּכָה, berukha) carries covenantal weight; it is the same root used in the Abrahamic blessing (Genesis 12:2). The phrase 'wife of your youth' (אֵשֶׁת נְעוּרֶיךָ, eshet neurek) evokes not merely youthful bride but the partnership formed when both are young and vital, emphasizing continuity and deepening bonds across time. The verb 'rejoice' (שְׂמַח, semach) indicates active, embodied happiness—not resigned tolerance but genuine joy. This verse reflects what Walter Brueggemann calls the 'carnivalesque' dimension of biblical wisdom: the affirmation that pleasure, properly situated within covenantal bounds, is not sinful but blessed. The contrast with the forbidden woman is now explicit—her pleasure is deceptive and bitter; the wife's is genuine and enduring.

Voice

The father-teacher, now invoking blessing language as he commends marital devotion.

Significance

This stands as the biblical affirmation of marital love alongside passages like Ephesians 5:25-27 (spousal love as Christological model) and the entire Song of Songs, which medieval and Reformation exegetes sometimes read literally as celebration of marital erotic love.

16Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

19A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Read all of Proverbs 5 — The lips of a forbidden woman drip honey — but her end is bitter as wormwood. A warning that sounds ancient but arrives fresh every generation.