Solomon exhorts to wisdom.

5:1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Turn your ear to my understanding:

5:2 that you may maintain discretion,
that your lips may preserve knowledge.

He shews the mischief of whoredom and riot.

5:3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey.
Her mouth is smoother than oil,

5:4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

5:5 Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

5:6 She gives no thought to the way of life.
Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.

5:7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me.
Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.

5:8 Remove your way far from her.
Don’t come near the door of her house,

5:9 lest you give your honor to others,
and your years to the cruel one;

5:10 lest strangers feast on your wealth,
and your labors enrich another man’s house.

5:11 You will groan at your latter end,
when your flesh and your body are consumed,

5:12 and say, “How I have hated instruction,
and my heart despised reproof;

5:13 neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,
nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

5:14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
in the midst of the gathered assembly.”

He exhorts to contentedness, liberality, and chastity.

5:15 Drink water out of your own cistern,
running water out of your own well.

5:16 Should your springs overflow in the streets,
streams of water in the public squares?

5:17 Let them be for yourself alone,
not for strangers with you.

5:18 Let your spring be blessed.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

5:19 A loving doe and a graceful deer—
let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
Be captivated always with her love.

5:20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another?

5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh.
He examines all his paths.

The wicked are overtaken with their own sins.

5:22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him.
The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

5:23 He will die for lack of instruction.
In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.