智慧和愚昧

智慧建造她的房屋,
    凿出七根柱子。
她宰了牲口,
    调了美酒,
    设了宴席,
派婢女出去邀请宾客,
    自己在城中高处呼喊:
“愚昧人啊,到这里来吧!”
    她又对无知者说:
“来吃我做的饭,
    尝尝我调的酒吧!
你们要抛弃愚昧,就能存活,
    要转向悟性之道。”

纠正嘲讽者,必自招羞辱;
    责备恶人,必自招伤害。
不要责备嘲讽者,免得他恨你;
    要责备智者,他必爱你。
教导智者,他就更有智慧;
    指教义人,他就更有见识。
10 智慧始于敬畏耶和华,
    认识至圣者便是明智。
11 智慧可增添你的年日,
    加添你的寿数。
12 人有智慧,自得益处;
    人好嘲讽,自食恶果。

13 愚昧的女人喧嚷,蒙昧,无知。
14 她坐在自己的家门口,
    坐在城中高处的座位上,
15 招呼着行色匆匆的过客:
16 “愚昧人啊,到这里来吧!”
    她又对无知者说:
17 “偷喝的水甜,偷吃的饼香。”
18 他们却不知她那里鬼影憧憧,
    她的客人已落在阴间的深处。

Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out and set up her seven [perfect number of] pillars.

She has killed her beasts, she has mixed her [spiritual] wine; she has also set her table.(A)

She has sent out her maids to cry from the highest places of the town:

Whoever is simple (easily led astray and wavering), let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [God’s] Wisdom says to him,

Come, eat of my bread and drink of the [spiritual] wine which I have mixed.(B)

Leave off, simple ones [forsake the foolish and simpleminded] and live! And walk in the way of insight and understanding.

He who rebukes a scorner heaps upon himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man gets for himself bruises.

Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.(C)

Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser; teach a righteous man (one upright and in right standing with God) and he will increase in learning.

10 The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding.

11 For by me [Wisdom from God] your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased.

12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scorn, you alone will bear it and pay the penalty.

13 The foolish woman is noisy; she is simple and open to all forms of evil, she [willfully and recklessly] knows nothing whatever [of eternal value].

14 For she sits at the door of her house or on a seat in the conspicuous places of the town,

15 Calling to those who pass by, who go uprightly on their way:

16 Whoever is simple (wavering and easily led astray), let him turn in here! And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,

17 Stolen waters (pleasures) are sweet [because they are forbidden]; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.(D)

18 But he knows not that the shades of the dead are there [specters haunting the scene of past transgressions], and that her invited guests are [already sunk] in the depths of Sheol (the lower world, Hades, the place of the dead).