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Proverbs 9

18 verses, grouped into the passages they belong to.

Wisdom Has Built Her House

Proverbs 9:1–6

Collection I ends the way a well-built argument ends, by putting the whole thing in one picture.

Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars;

She built before she invited. The house is finished and the pillars are cut before anyone is called, which is the first thing the chapter wants noticed.

Proverbs 9:2

She has slaughtered her meat, She has mixed her wine, She has also furnished her table.

Three more finished actions. Meat killed, wine mixed, table set: the meal is ready before the guests are called.

Proverbs 9:3

She has sent out her maidens, She cries out from the highest places of the city,

The invitation goes out, and it goes out twice over: servants sent into the city, and her own voice from the high ground.

Proverbs 9:4

"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,

The guest list, and it is the opposite of exclusive. She calls the naive and the one with no judgment yet, which is to say the people least likely to be invited anywhere.

Proverbs 9:5

"Come, eat of my bread And drink of the wine I have mixed.

The invitation in its plainest form: come and eat what I made. Two verbs, both about receiving.

Proverbs 9:6

Forsake foolishness and live, And go in the way of understanding.

The one thing asked of the guest: leave the old company and walk a different road. Not qualify, not improve. Come.

Do Not Correct a Scoffer

Proverbs 9:7–12

Six verses sit between the two banquets, and they are not obviously about either one.

Proverbs 9:7

"He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself.

A blunt observation about wasted effort: correcting someone committed to contempt costs the corrector and changes nothing.

Proverbs 9:8

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

The contrast that defines the section: the same act produces hatred in one person and affection in another. The variable is not the correction. It is the hearer.

Proverbs 9:9

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

Wisdom compounds. The person who already has some is the person most able to take on more, which is encouraging and slightly unfair.

Proverbs 9:10

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

The book's foundation, stated a second time as Collection I ends. Wisdom starts with a right relation to God, not with information.

Proverbs 9:11

For by me your days will be multiplied, And years of life will be added to you.

A claim about longevity, and it is an observation rather than a contract. Wisdom tends to keep people alive longer than folly does.

Proverbs 9:12

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, And if you scoff, you will bear it alone."

The outcome belongs to the person who chose it. Nobody else collects the benefit, and nobody else carries the cost.

Stolen Water Is Sweet

Proverbs 9:13–18

The chapter's second table, and the second woman.

Proverbs 9:13

A foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knows nothing.

The second figure is introduced, and the description is all noise and emptiness: loud, naive, and knowing nothing.

Proverbs 9:14

For she sits at the door of her house, On a seat by the highest places of the city,

She sits. Same high ground as Wisdom, same visibility, and no preparation behind her and no errand in front of her.

Proverbs 9:15

To call to those who pass by, Who go straight on their way:

Her targets are people already headed somewhere else, and going straight. She is not looking for the lost; she is interrupting the on-course.

Proverbs 9:16

"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here"; And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,

The same sentence Wisdom spoke in verse 4, aimed at the same two people. The chapter deliberately gives both women the identical line.

Proverbs 9:17

"Stolen water is sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant."

This is the sales pitch, quoted so you can hear it. Folly is speaking, and the very next verse is the narrator correcting her.

Proverbs 9:18

But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of hell.

The narrator answers Folly by naming the other guests. The man accepting the invitation cannot see who is already at the table.

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