Proverbs 9

The AIT Bible

The Feast of Lady Wisdom

1Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out her seven pillars.

2She has slaughtered her meat, she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

3She has sent out her maidservants; she calls from the heights of the town.

4“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To the one lacking sense she says,

5“Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed.

6Forsake simple ways and live, and walk in the way of understanding.”

7Whoever corrects a scoffer gets abuse for himself, and whoever rebukes a wicked man gets a blemish.

8Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

9Give to a wise man, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

10The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

11For through me your days will be many, and years of life will be added to you.

12If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; and if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

13The woman Folly is boisterous; she is naivety itself and knows nothing.

14She sits at the doorway of her house, on a seat at the heights of the town,

15calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their ways:

16“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to the one lacking sense she says,

17“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

18But he does not know that the shades are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.

parallel Proverbs 1:20 — Wisdom crying out and calling in the public places of the town is the same motif of Wisdom's open invitation.
parallel Proverbs 9:16 — Lady Folly repeats Wisdom's exact invitation to the simple, contrasting the two paths.
thematic Isaiah 55:1 — Both extend an invitation to come, eat and drink freely of what is offered as a path to life.

parallel Proverbs 1:7 — The programmatic saying that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom/knowledge frames the whole book.
parallel Psalms 111:10 — Nearly identical maxim that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.
thematic Proverbs 15:12 — Both state that a scoffer resents correction and will not go to the wise.
thematic Proverbs 3:2 — Both promise that wisdom brings length of days and added years of life.

parallel Proverbs 7:27 — Both conclude that the seductress's house leads down to the chambers of death/Sheol.
allusion Proverbs 2:18 — Shared imagery of the shades/dead in the house of the strange woman.
thematic Proverbs 5:15 — The imagery of illicit water and secret sweetness develops the same warning against the adulteress's seductive offer.