Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

9 Wisdom has built herself a house;
she has carved her seven pillars.
² She has prepared her food, spiced her wine,
and she has set her table.
³ She has sent out her young girls [with invitations];
she calls from the heights of the city,
⁴ “Whoever is unsure of himself, turn in here!”
To someone weak-willed she says,
⁵ “Come and eat my food!
Drink the wine I have mixed!
⁶ Don’t stay unsure of yourself, but live!
Walk in the way of understanding!”
⁷ “He who corrects a scoffer only gets insulted;
reproving a wicked man becomes his blemish.
⁸ If you reprove a scoffer, he will hate you;
if you reprove a wise man, he will love you.
⁹ Give to a wise man, and he grows still wiser;
teach a righteous man, and he will learn still more.
¹⁰ The fear of Adonai is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of holy ones is understanding.
¹¹ For with me, your days will be increased;
years will be added to your life.
¹² If you are wise, your wisdom helps you;
but if you scoff, you bear the consequences alone.”

¹³ The foolish woman is coarse;
she doesn’t think, and she doesn’t know a thing.
¹⁴ She sits at the door of her house
or on a seat at the heights of the city,
¹⁵ calling to those who pass by,
to those going straight along their ways,
¹⁶ “Whoever is unsure of himself, turn in here!”
To someone weak-willed she says,
¹⁷ “Stolen water is sweet;
food eaten in secret is pleasant.”
¹⁸ But he doesn’t realize
that the dead are there,
and that those who accept her invitation
are in the depths of Sh’ol.