The father opens with an urgent summons to pay attention to wisdom and turn the ear to words of insight. The purpose is practical and protective: the son must maintain discretion and preserve knowledge on his lips.
Proverbs 5:1-14
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
The adulterous woman is introduced through the imagery of smooth and sweet speech. Her lips drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as gall and sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet descend to death, and her steps lead to the grave. The danger is intensified by her unstable path, which the unwise do not perceive.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
The father commands the sons to listen and not turn aside from his words. The son must keep far from the adulterous woman and not go near her door. Failure to avoid her leads to loss of honor, strength, labor, wealth, and dignity. At life's end, the fool groans under consequences, confessing that he hated discipline and despised correction, and that his ruin occurred in the midst of the assembly.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
The father turns from warning to positive instruction. The son is commanded to drink water from his own cistern and running water from his own well, imagery for exclusive marital intimacy. His springs are not to be dispersed outside. He is to rejoice in the wife of his youth, delight in her love, and be captivated by her affection rather than intoxicated by another man's wife.
Proverbs 5:15-23
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
The chapter closes with theological seriousness. A person's ways are in full view of the LORD, who examines all paths. The wicked are ensnared by their own evil deeds and held fast by the cords of sin. The one who refuses discipline dies for lack of it and is led astray by great folly.
21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.