| 1 | Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out
and
set up her seven [perfect number of] pillars. |
| 2 | She has killed her beasts, she has mixed her [spiritual] wine; she has also set her table. |
| 3 | She has sent out her maids to cry from the highest places of the town: |
| 4 | Whoever is simple (easily led astray and wavering), let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [God’s] Wisdom says to him, |
| 5 | Come, eat of my bread and drink of the [spiritual] wine which I have mixed. |
| 6 | Leave off, simple ones [forsake the foolish and simpleminded] and live! And walk in the way of insight
and
understanding. |
| 7 | He who rebukes a scorner heaps upon himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man gets for himself bruises. |
| 8 | Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. |
| 9 | Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser; teach a righteous man (one upright and in right standing with God) and he will increase in learning. |
| 10 | The reverent
and
worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight
and
understanding. |
| 11 | For by me [Wisdom from God] your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased. |
| 12 | If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scorn, you alone will bear it
and
pay the penalty. |
| 13 | The foolish woman is noisy; she is simple
and
open to all forms of evil, she [willfully and recklessly] knows nothing whatever [of eternal value]. |
| 14 | For she sits at the door of her house
or
on a seat in the conspicuous places of the town, |
| 15 | Calling to those who pass by, who go uprightly on their way: |
| 16 | Whoever is simple (wavering and easily led astray), let him turn in here! And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, |
| 17 | Stolen waters (pleasures) are sweet [because they are forbidden]; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. |
| 18 | But he knows not that the shades of the dead are there [specters haunting the scene of past transgressions], and that her invited guests are [already sunk] in the depths of Sheol (the lower world, Hades, the place of the dead). |
Cross references:
-
Proverbs 9:2 : Matt. 22:2-4.
-
Proverbs 9:5 : Isa. 55:1; John 6:27.
-
Proverbs 9:8 : Ps. 141:5.
-
Proverbs 9:17 : Prov. 20:17.
|