What Does Proverbs 5:16 Mean in the King James?
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes intimacy’s source visible: when its waters are scattered into the streets, a private spring has become public flow.
THE MEANING
Your intimate life appears as a spring with a source, and here its waters branch into public streets. Beside the surrounding lines, the image asks whether what nourishes a mutual bond is being dispersed among strangers. Once the source is scattered, its flow reaches beyond the bond that held it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What I share in private stays private just because it begins in private.
THE ROOT
יָפוּצוּ
yāphūṣū
GROWS FROM
פוץ
pûts
Scatter, disperse.
“dispersed” in this verse is yāphūṣū. The verb centers the image on a source being spread outward. The water does not simply flow; it is scattered beyond its point of origin.
ALSO GROWS
yāphūṣ: He will scatter, or be scattered.
יָפוּץ
This form shows the same outward movement carried by the verse’s verb.
hēphîts: He scattered or spread out.
הֵפִיץ
This related form makes the spreading of something from its source explicit.
מַעְיְנֹתֶיךָ
maʿyenotekha
GROWS FROM
עין
Eye; in this word family, an opening or source, as in a spring.
“fountains” in this verse is maʿyenotekha. The word for a spring belongs to the family of עַיִן (ʿayin), “eye.” Both images point to an opening from which something emerges, so the verse presents intimacy as a source whose flow has a direction.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye.
עַיִן
The eye is an opening through which seeing emerges, echoing the spring as an opening through which water emerges.
maʿyan: Spring, fountain, or source of water.
מַעְיָן
This is the singular form behind “fountains,” keeping attention on the source before its waters spread.
בָּרְחֹבוֹת
ba-reḥovot
GROWS FROM
רחב
Be wide or make broad.
The Hebrew word for streets is linked to width and openness. The spring’s waters occupy broad public space, making their movement out from a private source visible.
ALSO GROWS
reḥov: Street, square, or open place.
רְחוֹב
This is the singular word for the public space named in the verse.
rāḥāb: Wide, broad.
רָחָב
The shared root makes the openness of the setting part of the image.
hirḥiv: Make wide, enlarge.
הִרְחִיב
This related form carries the root’s sense of widening into an action.
THE PATTERN
Intimate life is pictured as a source whose flow belongs inside a mutual bond, not as water scattered among strangers.
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.THE THREAD
A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.The Hebrew noun מַעְיָן (maʿyan, “spring” or “fountain”) is the same source-word behind “fountains” here. Proverbs pictures its waters out in public streets; Song pictures the spring enclosed and sealed, making the boundary around the same life-source visible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us