Proverbs 5:17

Amplified Bible

[Confine yourself to your own wife.] Let your children be yours alone, And not the children of strangers with you.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They should be for you aloneand not for you to share with strangers.

Hebrew Names Version
Let them be for yourself alone, Not for strangers with you.

King James Version
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

English Standard Version
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

New Century Version
These things are yours alone and shouldn't be shared with strangers.

New English Translation
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

New American Standard Bible
Let them be yours alone, And not for strangers with you.

World English Bible
Let them be for yourself alone, Not for strangers with you.

Geneva Bible (1587)
But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee.

Legacy Standard Bible
Let them be for you alone,And not for strangers with you.

Berean Standard Bible
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

Contemporary English Version
Save yourself for your wife and don't have sex with other women.

Complete Jewish Bible
but let them be for you alone and not for strangers with you.

Darby Translation
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

Easy-to-Read Version
Keep it for yourself, and don't share it with strangers.

George Lamsa Translation
Let it be for yourself alone, let not strangers be partners with you.

Good News Translation
Your children should grow up to help you, not strangers.

Lexham English Bible
May they be yours alone, and not for strangers who are with you.

Literal Translation
Let them be only your own, and not to strangers with you;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But let them be only thine owne, & not straungers with the.

American Standard Version
Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.

Bible in Basic English
Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

King James Version (1611)
Let them be onely thine owne, and not strangers with thee.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But let them be onlye thyne owne, and not straungers with thee.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee.

English Revised Version
Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Haue thou aloone `tho watris; and aliens be not thi parceneris.

Update Bible Version
Let them be for yourself alone, And not for strangers with you.

Webster's Bible Translation
Let them be only thy own, and not for strangers with thee.

New King James Version
Let them be only your own, And not for strangers with you.

New Living Translation
You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers.

New Life Bible
Let them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you.

New Revised Standard
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.

Revised Standard Version
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

Young's Literal Translation
Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.

THE MESSAGE
Your spring water is for you and you only, not to be passed around among strangers. Bless your fresh-flowing fountain! Enjoy the wife you married as a young man! Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose— don't ever quit taking delight in her body. Never take her love for granted! Why would you trade enduring intimacies for cheap thrills with a whore? for dalliance with a promiscuous stranger?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Let them be yours alone And not for strangers with you.

Contextual Overview

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship] And fresh running water from your own well. ¹⁶Should your springs (children) be dispersed, As streams of water in the streets? ¹⁷[Confine yourself to your own wife.] Let your children be yours alone, And not the children of strangers with you.¹⁸Let your fountain (wife) be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], And rejoice in the wife of your youth. ¹⁹Let her be as a loving hind and graceful doe, Let her breasts refresh and satisfy you at all times; Always be exhilarated and delight in her love. ²⁰Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an immoral woman And embrace the bosom of an outsider (pagan)? ²¹For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the LORD, And He carefully watches all of his paths [all of his comings and goings]. ²²The iniquities done by a wicked man will trap him, And he will be held with the cords of his sin. ²³He will die for lack of instruction (discipline), And in the greatness of his foolishness he will go astray and be lost.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. Or "they shall be thine own" u, as the Targum; meaning not the cistern, the well, or the wife, but the fountains and rivers, or the children; by a man's cleaving to his own wife, who is a chaste and virtuous woman, he is satisfied that the children he has by her are his own, and not another's; whereas if he has to do with a common harlot, it is uncertain whose children they are, she prostituting herself to many: it may be applied to the peculiar possession and steadfast retention of the truths of the Gospel, in opposition to all divers and strange doctrines propagated by others; see Revelation 2:25.

u יהיו לך "erunt tui", Mercerus, Cocceius; "erunt tibi", Baynus; "existent tibi", Schultens.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 5:17. Let them be only thine own — The off-spring of a legitimate connection; a bastard brood, however numerous, is no credit to any man.