[1] Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out and set up her seven [perfect number of] pillars. [2] She has killed her beasts, she has mixed her [spiritual] wine; she has also set her table. [3] She has sent out her maids to cry from the highest places of the town: [4] Whoever is simple (easily led astray and wavering), let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [God's] Wisdom says to him, [5] Come, eat of my bread and drink of the [spiritual] wine which I have mixed. [6] Leave off, simple ones [forsake the foolish and simpleminded] and live! And walk in the way of insight and understanding. [7] He who rebukes a scorner heaps upon himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man gets for himself bruises. [8] Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. [9] Give 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. [10] The 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. [11] For by me [Wisdom from God] your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased. [12] If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scorn, you alone will bear it and pay the penalty. [13] The foolish woman is noisy; she is simple and open to all forms of evil, she [willfully and recklessly] knows nothing whatever [of eternal value]. [14] For she sits at the door of her house or on a seat in the conspicuous places of the town, [15] Calling to those who pass by, who go uprightly on their way: [16] Whoever is simple (wavering and easily led astray), let him turn in here! And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, [17] Stolen waters (pleasures) are sweet [because they are forbidden]; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. [18] But 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).
