Proverbs 9

World English Bible 84 include this book

1 Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.

2 She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table.

3 She 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!

6 Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”

7 One who corrects a mocker invites insult. One who reproves a wicked man invites abuse.

8 Don’t reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise person, and he will love you.

9 Instruct a wise person, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous person, and he will increase in learning.

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

11 For by me your days will be multiplied. The years of your life will be increased.

12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it.

13 The foolish woman is loud, undisciplined, and knows nothing.

14 She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,

15 to 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.”

18 But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Go deeper in Proverbs

No place is named in this book. Shown instead is where it is thought to have been written.

Jerusalem traditional Court wisdom, collected and edited in Jerusalem.

The traditions broadly agree on this one.

Traditional: 970 BC–931 BC Solomon
Ascribed to Solomon by the text's own superscription.

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (970 BC–931 BC).

1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1200 BC–600 BC Zoroaster teaches in Persia Persia
Founder of Zoroastrianism, whose dating is disputed by as much as six centuries. His teaching on a cosmic struggle between good and evil later touched Jewish and Christian thought.
1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
1050 BC–800 BC The Phoenician alphabet spreads Levant
A compact consonantal alphabet that became the ancestor of Greek, Latin and Hebrew scripts.

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