Travelers choose between a bright orderly feast and a loud shadowed banquet in an ancient town

Proverbs 9:10

JPS TaNaKH 1917
Chapter overview
Wisdom prepares a generous feast and invites the simple to leave immaturity and live. Folly offers a noisy counterfeit built on stolen pleasures, while reverence for the Lord remains the true beginning of wisdom.
Wisdom and follyInvitationFear of the LordTeachability

About Proverbs: book summary and outline →

1Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars;
2She hath prepared her meat, she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
3She hath sent forth her maidens, she calleth, upon the highest places of the city:
4'Whoso is thoughtless, let him turn in hither'; as for him that lacketh understanding, she saith to him:
5'Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
6Forsake all thoughtlessness, and live; and walk in the way of understanding.
7He that correcteth a scorner getteth to himself shame, and he that reproveth a wicked man, it becometh unto him a blot.
8Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; reprove a wise man, and he will love thee.
9Give to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the All-holy is understanding.
11For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
12If thou art wise, thou art wise for thyself; and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.'
13The woman Folly is riotous; she is thoughtless, and knoweth nothing.
14And she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,
15To call to them that pass by, who go right on their ways:
16'Whoso is thoughtless, let him turn in hither'; and as for him that lacketh understanding, she saith to him:
17'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.'
18But he knoweth not that the shades are there; that her guests are in the depths of the nether-world.

Verses to memorize from Proverbs 9

  • Proverbs 9:10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of…

JPS TaNaKH 1917 — Public Domain. Where these translations come from.