Proverbs 9

Proverbs 9

1WISDOM HAS built her house; she has hewn out and set up her seven [perfect number of] pillars.

2She has killed her beasts, she has mixed her [spiritual] wine; she has also set her table. [Matt. 22:2-4.]

3She has sent out her maids to cry from the highest places of the town:

4Whoever is simple (easily led astray and wavering), let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [God's] Wisdom says to him,

5Come, eat of my bread and drink of the [spiritual] wine which I have mixed. [Isa. 55:1; John 6:27.]

6Leave off, simple ones [forsake the foolish and simpleminded] and live! And walk in the way of insight and understanding.

7He who rebukes a scorner heaps upon himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man gets for himself bruises.

8Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. [Ps. 141:5.]

9Give 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.

10The 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.

11For by me [Wisdom from God] your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased.

12If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scorn, you alone will bear it and pay the penalty.

13The foolish woman is noisy; she is simple and open to all forms of evil, she [willfully and recklessly] knows nothing whatever [of eternal value].

14For she sits at the door of her house or on a seat in the conspicuous places of the town,

15Calling to those who pass by, who go uprightly on their way:

16Whoever is simple (wavering and easily led astray), let him turn in here! And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,

17Stolen waters (pleasures) are sweet [because they are forbidden]; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. [Prov. 20:17.]

18But 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).

1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
Published by: The Lockman Foundation