Scripture Daily

Context No. 953 of 4322 · Proverbs

Context · Reflection

Proverbs 9:1-18: in context

1Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars. 2She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table. 3She has sent out her maidens. She cries from the highest places of the city: 4“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him, 5“Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed! 6Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.” 7One who corrects a mocker invites insult. One who reproves a wicked man invites abuse. 8Don’t reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise person, and he will love you. 9Instruct a wise person, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous person, and he will increase in learning. 10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11For by me your days will be multiplied. The years of your life will be increased. 12If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it. 13The foolish woman is loud, undisciplined, and knows nothing. 14She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, 15to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their ways, 16“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him, 17“Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.” 18But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Proverbs stages a choice between two women, each hosting a meal, each calling to the same passersby. Wisdom has built her house with seven pillars, prepared her meat, mixed her wine, set her table, and sent out her servants to cry from the heights of the city: whoever is simple, turn in here, leave your simple ways and live. In between comes the famous line, the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Then Folly appears, a loud and undisciplined woman, sitting at her door calling to the same passersby with her own invitation: stolen water is sweet, bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But her guests, the text says, are already in the depths of the grave.

The two invitations sound almost identical. Both women call to whoever is simple, both use the same words, turn in here, both sit at the high places of the city. The competition for a life is not between an obvious good and an obvious evil shouting different things; it is between two voices offering the same open door, and everything depends on which table you sit at. Wisdom offers a prepared feast, substantial food and mixed wine, and the promise leave your simple ways and live. Folly offers stolen water and secret bread, the thrill of the illicit, sweet precisely because it is forbidden and hidden, and never mentions that her house opens onto death. That is the honesty of Proverbs: sin markets itself on secrecy and sweetness, and does not disclose the address it leads to. The dividing line between the two tables is named plainly in the middle, the fear of the LORD, which is where real wisdom begins and which Folly, for all her charm, entirely lacks.

Two voices use almost the same words to call me in. Which table am I actually sitting at, the prepared feast of wisdom or the stolen, secret sweetness that hides where it leads?

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