Wisdom gives an invitation
9
📚Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.
9:1 This chapter gives the great contrast between wisdom and folly. Both have prepared something for men, both call out the same invitation (vs 4,16). But the one calls to life, to understanding, and to righteousness. The other calls to sin and death. Both call from the highest point of the city where all can see and hear them. Every person will answer the call of one or the other of these. Wisdom’s house with its seven pillars is large and perfect (seven is the Biblical number of perfection and completeness). Folly’s house is just a house (v 14) – no perfection, no completeness will ever be found there, unless it be the completeness of utter foolishness.⚜
2 📚She has slaughtered her animals;
she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3 📚She has sent out her maidens.
She calls out on the highest places
of the city:
4 📚“Whoever is simple,
let him turn in here!” As for the
one who lacks understanding,
she says to him:
5 📚“Come, eat my bread,
and drink the wine which I have mixed.
6 📚Forsake folly, and live,
and go in the way of understanding”.
9:4-6 This calling to the simple means that the way is open for them to become wise. And life, eternal spiritual life, comes to those who abandon their ignorant ways and receive Christ the wisdom of God.⚜
7 📚He who corrects a scorner gets contempt
for himself,
and he who rebukes a wicked man gets
an insult for himself.
8 📚Do not rebuke a scorner,
lest he hate you.
Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
9:8 Willingness or unwillingness to take a rebuke reveals something of a man’s character. The wise man, unlike the foolish mocker, knows a rebuke is for his correction, for his good (Ps 141:5).⚜
9 📚Give instruction to a wise man,
and he will be even wiser.
Teach a just man, and he will increase
in learning.
10 📚The fear 📖 of the LORD is
the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the holy 📖 is understanding.
11 📚For by me your days will be multiplied,
and the years of your life will be increased.
9:11 This was an Old Testament promise often repeated to those who feared God (Deut 5:16; 11:9, 21; Prov 3:2; 10:27). It is not much emphasized in this New Testament age when to depart and be with Christ is often the longing of believers (Phil 1:21-24). But in any age the fear of the Lord will lead to clean, disciplined living which will tend to produce longer life than self-indulgence and sinful ways will do.⚜
12 📚If you are wise,
you will be wise for your benefit 📖,
but if you scorn 📖,
you alone will bear it.
Folly also invites men
13 📚The woman Folly is loud 📖.
She is a simpleton,
and knows nothing.
14 📚And she sits at the door of her house,
on a seat on the heights of the city,
15 📚To call to those who pass by,
going straight on their ways:
16 📚“Whoever is simple,
let him turn in here!” And as for the one
who lacks understanding, she says to him:
17 📚“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant”.
9:17 Compare Prov 9:2, 5. Wisdom has food of her own. Folly must steal it. Wisdom wants people to leave their foolish ways (v 6). Folly wants them to plunge further into them by sins done in secret. She does not give them the truth of Prov 20:17.⚜
18 📚But he does not know that
the dead are there,
and that her guests go
to the depths of hell 📖.