Proverbs 9:1–18

¹True wisdom has built its house; it has hewn out its seven pillars.²It has organized its meat slaughtering; it has mixed its wine; more than that, it has set in order its table.³It has sent forth its lady attendants, that it may call out on top of the heights of the town:⁴“Whoever is inexperienced, let him turn aside here.” Whoever is in want of heart—she has said to him:⁵“Come, feed yourselves with my bread and share in drinking the wine that I have mixed.⁶Leave the inexperienced ones and keep living, and walk straight in the way of understanding.”

⁷He that is correcting the ridiculer is taking to himself dishonor, and he that is giving a reproof to someone wicked—a defect in him.⁸Do not reprove a ridiculer, that he may not hate you. Give a reproof to a wise person and he will love you.⁹Give to a wise person and he will become still wiser. Impart knowledge to someone righteous and he will increase in learning.

¹⁰The fear of Jehovah is the start of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Most Holy One is what understanding is.¹¹For by me your days will become many, and to you years of life will be added.¹²If you have become wise, you have become wise in your own behalf; and if you have ridiculed, you will bear [it], just you alone.

¹³A woman of stupidity is boisterous. She is simplemindedness itself and has come to know nothing whatever.¹⁴And she has seated herself at the entrance of her house, upon a seat, [in] the high places of the town,¹⁵to call out to those passing along the way, those who are going straight ahead on their paths:¹⁶“Whoever is inexperienced, let him turn aside here.” And whoever is in want of heart—she has also said to him:¹⁷“Stolen waters themselves are sweet, and bread [eaten] in secrecy—it is pleasant.”¹⁸But he has not come to know that those impotent in death are there, that those called in by her are in the low places of She′ol.