²⁰ Wisdom calls out in the streets,
    in the squares she raises her voice.
²¹ On a busy corner^[a] she cries out,
    at the entrances of the gates in the city, she speaks her sayings:
²² “How long,^[b] O simple ones, will you love simplicity?
    And how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing,
    and fools hate knowledge?
²³ May you turn to my argument!^[c]
    Behold, I shall pour out my spirit upon you;
    I will make my words known to you.
²⁴ Because I called out and you refused me,
    I stretched out my hand, yet there is none who heeds.
²⁵ You have ignored all my counsel,
    and my reproof you are not willing to accept.
²⁶ I will also laugh at your calamity;^[d]
    I will mock when panic^[e] comes upon you.
²⁷ When your panic comes like a storm,
    and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you,
²⁸ then they will call^[f] me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently but not find me.
²⁹ Since they hated knowledge,
    and did not choose the fear of Yahweh,
³⁰ they were not willing to accept my counsel,
    they despised all my reproof.
³¹ They shall eat from the fruit of their way,
    and they shall be sated from their own schemes,
³² for the waywardness of the simple ones will kill them,
    and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
³³ Whoever listens to me will dwell in security
    and rest securely^[g] from dread and disaster.”

¹³ A woman of foolishness is loud,
    simple, and does not know it.^[a]
14 She sits at the door of her house,
    upon a throne at the high places of town,
¹⁵ in order to call to those who pass by the road,
    those who go straight on their way:
¹⁶ “Whoever is simple, may he turn here!”
    As for he who lacks sense,^[b] she says to him,
¹⁷ “Stolen waters are sweet,
    and bread of secrecy is pleasant.”
¹⁸ But he does not know that the dead^[c] are there,
    in the depths of Sheol^[d] are her guests.