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Proverbs 9
Wisdom as hostess
1 Wisdom has built herself a house, she has erected her seven pillars,
2 she has slaughtered her beasts, prepared her wine, she has laid her table.
3 She has despatched her maidservants and proclaimed from the city’s heights:
4 ‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.’ To the fool she says,
5 ‘Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared!
6 Leave your folly and you will live, walk in the ways of perception.’
Against cynics
7 Correct a mocker and you make an enemy; rebuke a wicked man, you get insult in return.
8 Do not rebuke the mocker, he will only hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will love you for it.
9 Be open with the wise, he grows wiser still, teach a virtuous man, he will learn yet more.
10 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom; the knowledge of the Holy One-perception indeed!
11 For days are multiplied by me and years of life increased.
12 Are you wise? It is to your advantage. A mocker? The burden is yours alone.
Dame Folly apes Wisdom
13 Dame Folly acts on impulse, is childish and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house, on a throne commanding the city,
15 inviting the passers-by as they pass on their lawful occasions,
16 ‘Who is ignorant? Let him step this way.’ To the fool she says,
17 ‘Stolen waters are sweet, and bread tastes better when eaten in secret’.
18 The fellow does not realise that here the Shades are gathered, that her guests are heading for the valleys of Sheol.