• Wisdom and Foolishness Call Out

  • 1 Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars;
  • 2 She has slaughtered her cattle, she has mixed her wine; She has also prepared her table;
  • 3 She has sent out her maidens, she calls From the tops of the heights of the city:
  • 4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks a heart of wisdom she says,
  • 5 “Come, eat of my bread And drink of the wine I have mixed.
  • 6 “Forsake your simplicity and live, And step into the way of understanding.”
  • 7 He who disciplines a scoffer receives disgrace for himself, And he who reproves a wicked man receives injury for himself.
  • 8 Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you.
  • 9 Give knowledge to a wise man and he will be still wiser, Make a righteous man know it and he will increase his learning.
  • 10 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
  • 11 For by me your days will become many, And years of life will be added to you.
  • 12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, And if you scoff, you alone will bear it.
  • 13 The woman of foolishness is boisterous, A woman of simplicity, and does not know anything.
  • 14 She sits at the doorway of her house, On a seat by the high places of the city,
  • 15 To call to those who pass by that way, Who are making their paths straight:
  • 16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here,” And to him who lacks a heart of wisdom she says,
  • 17 “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
  • 18 But he does not know that the dead are there, That those she called are in the depths of Sheol.