Study Desk

Wisdom calls out in the street, she lifts her voice in the square,

in the main concourse^(a) she cries aloud, at the city gates she makes her speech:

“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?

If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.

Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,

because you neglected all my counsel, and wanted none of my correction,

in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,

when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.

For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.

They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.

So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, secure from the fear of evil.”

The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing.

She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the heights of the city,

calling to those who pass by, who make their paths straight:

“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks judgment she says:

“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”

But they do not know that the dead^(a) are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.