Solomon is talking to a son about adultery, and in the middle of the subject he stops and describes the mechanics of any repeated sin. The phrase is surgical: the cords are his own sins.
Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't mention punishment falling from the sky, doesn't mention an enemy setting a trap, doesn't mention bad luck. He says the man is held fast by his own cords. The consequence didn't come from outside, it had been building from within the whole time.
Reflection
1The Net Is Woven at Home
A net isn't made with one thread. A single thread holds nobody, it snaps with one tug. A net is made of many thin threads, crossed over time, and it's that sum that holds a grown man.
Think about the first threads, because they never look dangerous. The first drink, which was social. The first glance, which was curiosity. The first rounded number on the spreadsheet, which nobody would check. The first conversation that was just friendship, with someone who wasn't your wife. The first bet, which was fun with small money.
None of these threads traps anyone. That's exactly why the person sees no problem, and that's the very genius of the trap. Nobody enters a net thinking they're entering a net.
2The Trap Promises Freedom
James describes the same mechanism with a word worth gold: "each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed." Hold on to the word enticed. Deception is part of the design.
And the deception is always the same: it sells itself as freedom and delivers slavery. The drink promises to relax and then demands. The bet promises a thrill and then collects. The hidden relationship promises to feel alive again and then becomes a second life to manage, with passwords, schedules, and lies that need to match up.
And there's a clear sign that the net has already closed: the person still believes they're in control. It's the most repeated line of anyone who's trapped: I'll stop when I want to. Except that whoever really is in control doesn't need to say that, and whoever says it has usually already tried to stop and gone back.
3Loss of Control Isn't Lack of Information
The next verse closes the diagnosis in a hard way: "For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly" (5:23). Solomon doesn't say the man died from ignorance.
That's important, and it's what separates this study from a useless sermon. Nobody who's trapped needs more information. The alcoholic knows what drinking does to his liver. Whoever is in the middle of an affair knows the size of the wreckage coming. Whoever bet the paycheck knows the bill that's coming due. Everybody knows, and yet keeps going.
So if knowing doesn't solve it and willpower isn't enough, the text is pointing somewhere else. And that's where the New Testament comes in, not with better advice, but with a key.