Proverbs
9 Wisdom has built her house,
has shaped her pillars seven,
2 Has killed animals for her meat, mixed her wine,
set her table too,
3 Has sent her girls, calls out
on the crests of eminences in the city
4 “Who is a simpleton? let him come this way;
brainless? that I may say to him
5 ‘Come, have some of my dinner
and drink some of the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave off simpleness and have life,
and tread the road of discretion.”’
7 —He who offers instruction to a cynic gets dishonor for himself, and he who admonishes a wicked man, it is his discredit.
8 Do not admonish a cynic, for fear he should hate you;
admonish a wise man and he will love you.
9 Give to a wise man and he will be wiser yet;
advise a right-minded man and he will add to his lore.
10 The beginning of wisdom is to fear Jehovah,
and to know the Holy is discretion.
11 For by me your days shall be many
and years of life shall be added to you.
12* If you are wise, you are wise for yourself;
and are you cynical, you will carry the consequences alone.
14 And she sits at the door of her house,
in a chair on eminences in the city,
15 To call to passersby,
those who are treading their ways,
16 “Who is a simpleton? let him come this way;
and brainless? that I may say to him
17 ‘Stolen water is sweet
and bread behind a screen is delicious’”—
18 But he does not know there are ghosts there;
her guests are in the deeps of the realm of death.