Study Desk

Wisdom cries aloud outside; she gives her voice in the square;

she calls at the head of places of commotion; in the opening of the gates, in the city she utters her words:

Until when will you love to be simple, you simple ones? And will scorners desire scorn for themselves? And will fools hate knowledge?

Turn back at my warning; behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.

Because I called, and you refused; I stretch out a hand, and none inclines,

but you have ignored all my counsel, and you did not desire my warning.

I also will laugh in your calamity, I will mock when your dread comes;

when your dread comes like a storm; and your calamity arrives like a tempest, when distress and anguish come on you.

Then they shall call on me, and I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.

Instead they hated knowledge and chose not the fear of Jehovah.

They did not desire my counsel; they despised all my reproof,

and they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own lusts.

For the going astray of the simple kills them, and the ease of fools destroys them.

But he who listens to me shall live securely and shall be at ease from the dread of evil.