I was reading Proverbs 5 not too long ago, and noticed that the author used some artful wordplay to enrich the meaning of his proverb. In this case, he is comparing and contrasting a faithful marriage to lustful relationships, juxtaposing the two in order to highlight the benefits of faithfulness. Yeah, this passage might make you blush a bit, but don’t blame me. It’s God’s Word, ha.
The author more-or-less starts off this topic in verse 15. And to make it clear from the start, he is analogizing a faithful relationship to taking water from one cistern and relating an unfaithful, lustful relationship to taking water from many cisterns. Here it is:
Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
20 Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?
21 For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.
23 For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly.
Like I mentioned above, I want to draw attention to the wordplay in this passage because of the way it enriches the author’s comparison between the faithful and unfaithful. But unless you know Hebrew for some reason, it’s pretty much impossible to pick up on the wordplay—hence, why I bolded the words that otherwise might not be associated as “wordplay”. That’s when footnotes make the Hebrew meaning come to life through the deadness and dullness of the English language.
The ESV Study Bible has a footnote next to the first word I bolded, “intoxicated”, and indicates that another meaning is “to be led astray” (v. 19). This particular description conveys the idea that one is being carried astray helplessly in the riptides of love. Yet, this is significant because further down in the passage, the author uses the same picture to describe the nature of unfaithful lust as well, which I bolded as well—“is led astray” (v. 23).
The first description of faithful love is described as intoxicating delight and pleasure of the highest order, sensitively aware of and enjoying every good activity. But the second description of unfaithful lust is intoxicating delight and pleasure but not of the highest order, because it disregards sensitivity to values, dismisses other people, and blinds you to the consequences that can negatively carry into the future.
In the first sense, “to be led astray” is used in a positive sense: being carried away in the riptides of love. In the second sense, “to be led astray” is used in a negative sense: being carried away in the riptides of lust. The first leads to life. The second leads to destruction.
But the river of emotion and delight is the same in both, thus being equally strong. Though, the difference lies in how these emotions and delights are channeled. If they are channeled in the bounds of God’s design, it will flourish as intended. But if not, then they will lead to inevitable ruin.
And this is where an implication of wordplay hits home and confronts a major lie that culture wants you to believe: that lustful, unfaithful relationships are more appealing, more attractive, and better than God’s design and command of faithfulness. But here, it is emphasized that godly love is equally—and more—appealing, intoxicating, pleasurable, and desirous than what you think lust can promise to you. This proverb illustrates an equally strong emotion of being “carried astrayed” in “intoxication” in love as in lust. Many people—and Christians—typically don’t define ‘love’ as that…but all probably would define ‘lust’ as that. But we see the Bible illustrates love as just as powerful as lust, in that both–by their very natures–carries you helplessly astray. Bible romance. Gotta *love* it.
Also to mention: lustful, unfaithful relationships will bring all those pleasures you want, sure, but in a temporal manner that promises up front, but fails to come through fully in the end. Like a drug, the high will wear off, and not only are you left just as empty and just as longing as before, but you will also have to deal with a new wake of negative consequences—rippling from outside of your personal life into the lives of others, families, work, and etc. On the other hand, godly love is channeling that strong river of affections and being “led astray” in it—intoxicated in faithful love.
Additional thoughts:
The disastrous degree of lust and the destruction it brings is only great because it forsakes the greatness of love and the fulfillment it brings.
Think about it this way: It’s just like heaven and hell. To forsake the glory of Son is to choose the opposite, which is an echo of all that He is not. And if he is great in what he is, then everything he is not will equally lack that greatness. Similarly, what you choose in lust is great in negative consequences, because what you lose in love is great in positive consequences. Lust is powerfully destructive in our lives because it forsakes the opposite (love), which is powerfully constructive for our good.
