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.”

¹³ Woman Folly is noisy;
    she’s stupid and doesn’t even know it.
¹⁴ She sits at the doorway of her house,
    on a seat at the city heights.
¹⁵ She invites those who pass by on the path,
    those going straight on their way.
¹⁶ “Whoever is naive, come in here,”
    she says to those who lack sense.
¹⁷ “Stolen water is sweet;
    food eaten in secret is pleasant.”
¹⁸ But they don’t know that the dead are there;
    her guests are in the depths of the grave.^[a]