²⁰ Wisdom cries out in the street;
    in the squares she raises her voice.^(A)
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
    and fools hate knowledge?^(B)
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
    I will make my words known to you.^(C)
24 Because I have called and you refused,
    have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,^(D)
25 and because you have ignored all my counsel
    and would have none of my reproof,^(E)
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
    I will mock when panic strikes you,^(F)
27 when panic strikes you like a storm
    and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently but will not find me.^(G)
29 Because they hated knowledge
    and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
³⁰ would have none of my counsel
    and despised all my reproof,^(H)
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
    and be sated with their own devices.^(I)
32 For waywardness kills the simple,
    and the complacency of fools destroys them;^(J)
33 but those who listen to me will be secure
    and will live at ease without dread of disaster.”^(K)

¹³ The foolish woman is loud;
    she is ignorant and knows nothing.^(A)
14 She sits at the door of her house,
    on a seat at the high places of the town,
¹⁵ calling to those who pass by,
    who are going straight on their way,
¹⁶ “You who are simple, turn in here!”
    And to those without sense she says,
¹⁷ “Stolen water is sweet,
    and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”^(B)
18 But they do not know that the dead^[a] are there,
    that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.^(C)