⁸ Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction;
    don’t neglect your mother’s teaching;

²⁰ Wisdom shouts in the street;
    in the public square she raises her voice.
²¹ Above the noisy crowd, she calls out.
    At the entrances of the city gates, she has her say:
²² “How long will you clueless people love your naïveté,
    mockers hold their mocking dear,
    and fools hate knowledge?
²³ You should respond when I correct you.
    Look, I’ll pour out my spirit on you.
    I’ll reveal my words to you.
²⁴ I invited you, but you rejected me;
    I stretched out my hand to you,
    but you paid no attention.
²⁵ You ignored all my advice,
    and you didn’t want me to correct you.
²⁶ So I’ll laugh at your disaster;
    I’ll make fun of you when dread comes over you,
²⁷         when terror hits you like a hurricane,
        and your disaster comes in like a tornado,
        when distress and oppression overcome you.
²⁸ Then they will call me, but I won’t answer;
    they will seek me, but won’t find me
²⁹         because they hated knowledge
        and didn’t choose the fear of the Lord.
³⁰ They didn’t want my advice;
    they rejected all my corrections.
³¹ They will eat from the fruit of their way,
    and they’ll be full of their own schemes.
³² The immature will die because they turn away;
    smugness will destroy fools.
³³ Those who obey me will dwell securely,
    untroubled by the dread of harm.”

¹¹ Don’t reject the instruction of the Lord, my son;
    don’t despise his correction.
¹² The Lord loves those he corrects,
    just like a father who treats his son with favor.

4 Hear, children, fatherly instruction;
    pay attention to gain understanding.

⁷ Whoever instructs the cynic gets insulted;
    whoever corrects the wicked gets hurt.
⁸ Don’t correct the impudent, or they will hate you;
    correct the wise, and they will love you.

¹⁷ Those who heed instruction are on the way to life,
    but those who ignore correction lose their way.