Abstract:
Proverbs 5:15-20 is not about ecological issues such as water management.
However, the biblical author employed water-related metaphors
as a way of speaking about faithfulness in marriage. The
young man is instructed to drink water from his own cistern/well
and to restrain himself from wasting this precious resource on the
public areas (vv. 15-16). This article explores attitudes or assumptions
towards water that might have informed the author’s use of
water-related metaphors in an attempt to promote fidelity in marriage.
The water management metaphors in Prov 5:15-20 are relevant
in contemporary Africa, where water crises have developed not
necessarily because of a lack of resources, but often because of
issues related to poor water management. The investigation is facilitated
by a hermeneutics of suspicion and retrieval or trust. Two of
the six eco-justice principles associated with the Earth Bible Project
are applied, namely the principles of intrinsic worth and interconnectedness.
