“Drink water from your own cistern”: The teacher continues to address the learner with a proverb whose figurative language instructs him to have sexual relations only with his wife. Since this subdivision is addressed to a man who is married, some translations feel it is necessary to begin, “If you are married, think only of your wife, stay with her. . ..” A “cistern” is an underground chamber used to catch rainwater for storing. “Cisterns”, like “wells” in the next line, were often dug in the ground and lined with limestone plaster to keep them from leaking. They were also sometimes hollowed out of rock. The scarcity of water made it essential to guard cisterns and wells closely. The emphasis in this verse is on the private use of water from a “cistern”. The thought expressed here is “Just as you drink water from your own cistern, so you should have sex only with your own wife.”
In languages in which “cisterns” are unknown and the meaning of the figure is unclear, it may be necessary to avoid the images of “cisterns” and “wells”. In that case we may say by use of a simile, for example, “Be faithful to your own wife, just as you drink water from your own spring.” The figure of water from the cistern may also suggest that the man should find refreshment from his own wife just as he does from the refreshing water. In that case we may say, for example, “Refresh yourself with your own wife as you are refreshed from your own spring.” Bible en français courant says, “Your wife is like a spring of pure water. Drink from that spring!” Another translation that keeps the figurative language but suggests the comparison of sexual thirst with thirst for water is Biblia Dios Habla Hoy: “Calm your thirst with the water that flows from your own well.”
“Flowing water from your own well”: This line adds little to the first one. “Well” refers to a hole dug in the ground that gathers water from the underground water table. If you have words for both “cisterns” and “wells” and you wish to retain the images without further clarification, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch offers a model: “You have your own spring and your own well which flow with clear water. So drink from these sources!”
In some languages translators try to make a stronger note of warning at the beginning of the verse by using a negative command; for example, “Do not go to the well of another man. Stay with your own wife and sleep only with her, just as a man drinks water from his own well.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .