²⁰ Wisdom shouts in the streets for a hearing. ²¹ She calls out to the crowds along Main Street, and to the judges in their courts, and to everyone in all the land: ²² “You simpletons!” she cries. “How long will you go on being fools? How long will you scoff at wisdom and fight the facts? ²³ Come here and listen to me! I’ll pour out the spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise. ²⁴ I have called you so often, but still you won’t come. I have pleaded, but all in vain. ²⁵ For you have spurned my counsel and reproof. ²⁶ Some day you’ll be in trouble, and I’ll laugh! Mock me, will you?—I’ll mock you! ²⁷ When a storm of terror surrounds you, and when you are engulfed by anguish and distress, ²⁸ then I will not answer your cry for help. It will be too late though you search for me ever so anxiously.

²⁹ “For you closed your eyes to the facts and did not choose to reverence and trust the Lord, ³⁰ and you turned your back on me, spurning my advice. ³¹ That is why you must eat the bitter fruit of having your own way and experience the full terrors of the pathway you have chosen. ³² For you turned away from me—to death; your own complacency will kill you. Fools! ³³ But all who listen to me shall live in peace and safety, unafraid.”