9 Wisdom has built her house—

chiselling out its seven pillars.

2 She’s butchered her meat and mixed her wine—

≈ her table is already nicely prepared.

3 She’s sent out her young women.

She calls out from the heights in the city.

4 “Anyone who’s naive, let him turn aside here,”

she says to the one lacking understanding.

5 “Come and eat my bread,

≈ and drink the wine I’ve mixed.

6 Abandon foolish ways and live,

≈ and walk on the path of understanding.

7 Anyone who tries to correct a mocker just gets insulted,

≈ and anyone who tells off a wicked person is likely to get hurt.

8 Don’t try to correct a mocker in case he just hates you.

^ Correct a wise person on the other hand, and it’ll be appreciated.

9 Give to a wise person and they’ll become wiser still.

≈ Inform an honest person and they’ll keep learning.

10 The first step towards being wise is to strive to obey Yahweh,

and being aware of the heavenly beings is the beginning of understanding,

11 because it’s by me that your days will be extended,

≈ and years will be added to your life.

12 If you’re wise, you’ll be helping yourself,

^ and if you mock, then you alone will suffer the result.

13 A foolish woman is boisterous and naive,

≈ and she doesn’t know anything.

14 She sits at the doorway of her house,

or on a seat in the city heights,

15 in order to call out to those who are passing by—

those men who are going straight past on their way.

16 “Anyone who’s naive can turn in here,”

she says to those lacking sense.

17 “Stolen drinks are sweet,

≈ and secret food tastes good.”

18 But he doesn’t realise that the dead are there,

≈ or that her guests are in the depths of the grave.