It may be helpful to consider how few imperatives there are in the whole book. It is a book of descriptions and contrasts, explaining how things are, implying how things ought to be. In short, it is "wisdom literature," not law per se.
To really appreciate the book requires parallel instruction in the law. So from the early-going, where the instruction is mainly father-to-son, through to the end of the book, note how often is the counsel concerning the "fear of the Lord." Reverence for God is a byproduct of seeing, experiencing, and understanding his discipline.
To deplore descriptions of wickedness presupposes the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Abhorring bloodshed, deceit, robbery, the seducer--all this is built on the foundation of divine prescription. But neither simple description nor commands are able to impart the power of imitation or obedience. Proverbs purely as a book of good counsel will not make a truly wise man.
Dt.31:12-13 "Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it."
What is not fully expressed there (not in so many words) is how necessary is Holy Spirit to the appreciation of the nature of grace toward the people (even before they were a people). And yet, no obedience is really possible without that heartfelt reverence.
Proverbs is first-and-foremost instruction for the future, later the present, mediatorial king. Dt.17:19-20 "And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." Wisdom is required for rule. 1Ki.3:8-9 "And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?"
Proverbs is a description of the law applied. It describes sin restrained as a good, and sin unfettered as an evil. It implicitly urges the King and Head to bind sin and eradicate it, for the good of the body.
