Proverbs 9
What Happens in This Chapter
This chapter sets two women side by side. Wisdom builds a house, cooks a meal, and calls people in the street to come and eat and live. In the middle come short sayings about who accepts correction and who does not, and where wisdom begins. Then Foolishness sits at her own door and calls the same people in, offering stolen food, and her guests are among the dead.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
1Wisdom is talked about here like a woman. She built her house. She cut seven strong posts to hold it up.
2She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
2She cooked her meat. She mixed her wine with spices. She set her table with food.
3She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,
3She sent out her servant girls to invite people. She calls out from the highest spots in the city.
4Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
4"Anyone who does not know much, come in here!" She says this to people who lack good sense.
5Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
5"Come and eat the bread I made. Drink the wine I mixed for you."
6Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
6"Leave foolish ways behind, and you will live. Walk in the way of good sense."
7He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
7Correct someone who makes fun of others, and he will shame you. Correct a bad man, and he will hurt you.
"Scorner" in the King James Bible means a person who makes fun of others and of good advice. "Getteth himself a blot" means he ends up hurt or insulted.
8Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
8Do not correct a person who mocks. He will hate you. Correct a wise person, and he will love you.
9Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
9Teach a wise person, and he will grow even wiser. Teach a good person, and he will learn more.
10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
10Deep respect for the LORD is where wisdom starts. Knowing the Holy One is understanding.
"The fear of the LORD" does not mean being scared of God. It means deep respect and wonder toward him.
11For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
11Wisdom says, "Because of me, your days will be many. More years will be added to your life."
12If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
12If you are wise, the good of it comes to you. If you mock, you carry the trouble alone.
13A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.
13Now here is another woman. Her name is Foolishness. She is loud. She knows nothing.
14For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,
14She sits at the door of her house. Her seat is high up in the city.
15To call passengers who go right on their ways:
15She calls out to people walking by, who are going straight on their way.
"Passengers" in the King James Bible means people walking past on the road, not riders in a car or bus.
16Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
16"Anyone who does not know much, come in here!" She says this to people who lack good sense.
17Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
17She says, "Water you steal tastes sweet. Bread eaten in secret tastes good."
18But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
18But the man who goes in does not know the dead are there. Her guests are deep down where dead people are.
The word here is Sheol, the place where dead people go. The King James Bible says "hell," but the word means the place of the dead.
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