Proverbs 9

Wisdom has built her house. She has cut out her seven pillars to hold it up.

1Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

NotePillars are stone or timber columns holding up a roof; a house that needed seven of them was a large and costly one. Seven in Hebrew usage regularly stands for a full or complete set, so the phrase suggests a house built to perfection rather than a particular floor plan. What such a house actually looked like has never been settled.

2She has butchered her animals and prepared the meat. She has mixed her wine and set her table.

2She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.

Note"Killed her beasts" means slaughtered livestock and butchered them for meat. Meat was rarely eaten in ordinary Israelite life; killing an animal signaled a feast. Wine was commonly blended before serving, either with water or with spices and honey, so "mingled" describes normal preparation for guests rather than weakening the drink.

3She has sent out her servant girls with the invitation, and she herself calls out from the highest points of the city:

3She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,

NoteSending household servant girls out as messengers marks the speaker as a woman of means. The high points of a city (its gates, walls and open squares) were where public announcements were made, so this is an open invitation shouted in public, not a private one.

4"Anyone who is simple, come in here!" To the person who has no sense, she says:

4Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

Note"Simple" translates a Hebrew word meaning inexperienced and easily persuaded, someone still open to being formed either way. It does not mean stupid; the person can still be taught. In KJV English "wanteth" means lacks, not desires, so "him that wanteth understanding" is the person who has no sense.

5"Come and eat the bread I have made, and drink the wine I have mixed.

5Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.

6Leave foolish ways behind and you will live. Walk on the road of understanding."

6Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

NoteThe Hebrew here can be read two ways: leave the simple ones, meaning quit the company of the naive, or leave your own simpleness behind. Both readings are ancient and neither can be ruled out.

7Whoever corrects a person who mocks will only be insulted for it. Whoever tells a wicked man he is wrong will get hurt by it.

7He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.

NoteThe scorner, or mocker, is a fixed character type in Proverbs: not merely someone who jokes, but someone who has settled in advance on refusing correction. KJV "getteth himself a blot" means picks up a stain on his own reputation, the corrector, not the corrected, ends up damaged.

8Do not correct a mocker, or he will hate you. Correct a wise person, and he will love you for it.

8Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

9Teach a wise person and he will become wiser still. Teach a person who does right, and he will learn even more.

9Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

10Respect for the LORD, and fear of him, is where wisdom starts. Knowing the Holy One is what understanding means.

10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Note"The fear of the LORD" translates a Hebrew phrase covering a range from dread to awed respect; English has no single word for it. "Beginning" renders a word that can mean either the starting point or the chief part, the first principle. LORD in small capitals stands where the Hebrew has God's personal name. "The holy" is plural in Hebrew, "holy ones," widely taken as an intensive way of saying the Holy One.

11"Because of me, your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

11For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

Note"By me" returns the reader to Wisdom's own voice from verse 5; the sayings in verses 7 to 10 read as general maxims, and here the invitation resumes. Where exactly the speaker changes is not marked in the Hebrew.

12If you are wise, you are the one who gains from it. If you mock, you are the one who will carry the cost, alone."

12If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

13The woman called Folly is loud. She is thoughtless and knows nothing at all.

13A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.

NoteThe Hebrew reads "a woman of folly," set up deliberately as the mirror image of the personified Wisdom in verse 1. The chapter puts two hostesses side by side, each with a house, a table and the same invitation to the same passers-by. "Clamorous" means loud and boisterous. The word translated "simple" here is the same one she uses of her targets in verse 16.

14She sits at the door of her house, on a seat up in the high places of the city,

14For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,

NoteWisdom sends messengers out and calls from the city heights; Folly takes the same elevated station but simply sits at her own door. Sitting at the doorway is elsewhere in Hebrew writing the posture of a woman soliciting men in the street.

15calling out to the people walking by, who are going straight ahead on their own way:

15To call passengers who go right on their ways:

NoteIn KJV English "passengers" means people passing by on foot, not people riding in anything. "Who go right on their ways" means those keeping straight along their own road, minding their own business: she calls to people who were not looking for her.

16"Anyone who is simple, come in here!" And to the person who has no sense, she says:

16Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

17"Water you steal tastes sweet, and bread eaten in secret tastes good."

17Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

NoteShe quotes what sounds like a popular saying. Water and bread are the two basic staples, and stealing water most literally means drawing from a well or cistern that is not yours. Because water from one's own cistern is used elsewhere in Proverbs as an image for one's own wife, the saying is generally heard as a veiled reference to adultery. The claim being made is that secrecy is itself what makes it taste good.

18But the man does not know that the dead are in that house, and that her guests are deep down in the place of the dead.

18But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

NoteKJV "hell" renders the Hebrew Sheol, the underworld to which all the dead were thought to go (the grave, the realm of the dead), not the later idea of hell as a place of punishment for the wicked in particular. The word behind "the dead" is rephaim, the shades or ghosts of those who have died. "Guests" is the ordinary word for people invited to a meal, which sets her table pointedly against Wisdom's table in verse 2.