Proverbs 9:17

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread (eaten) in secret is pleasant - (cf. the answer to her lure, ; .) Wisdom sets forth her bread () openly before all. But Folly invites to bread surreptitiously eaten. Contrast with the "stolen waters" of love, or of any heart lust, , "Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well." Our corruption is such that the very prohibition enhances the pleasure (; 20:7-8 ) ('Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.' Ovid.) The difficulty, the rareness, the love of deceit, all whet the appetite for "stolen waters." The saint resists the temptation. Compare the case of David desiring the waters of Bethlehem, but refusing to take them when procured at the risk of the lives of the three who broke through the host of the Philistines (). Folly's "waters" stand in contrast to Wisdom's spiced "wine" (; ).